UC Med Mentors present laptops to school children
Twenty local elementary school students received the gift of a new laptop computer from Med Mentors, a volunteer effort in the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine, during a special ceremony on April 2, in the college’s CARE/Crawley Atrium.
UC Med Mentors works with the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative (CYC) to link medical students with Cincinnati Public School children for mentorship. The gift of laptops for these schoolchildren is the result of $10,000 in funding from the Clare Family Foundation and the Cincinnati Children’s medical staff. This is the fourth year the program has been able to provide laptops for school children.
“They have to earn it and apply for the laptop,” said Charles Cavallo, MD, president, UC Med Mentors Advisory Board. “The students are nominated by their mentor. The students, their parents and the mentor all sign an agreement to care for the laptop and use it appropriately. It’s theirs to keep, and they can take it home. They get a bag, screen cover and protective case, along with a warranty to keep it as safe as we can.”
UC Med Mentors was founded in 2001 by Wan Lim, PhD, associate professor emeritus of medical education. The program connects 200 medical students to about 100 school-age mentees and works closely with CYC to train mentors.
Said Keith Stringer, MD, faculty advisor for Med Mentors, “Statistically, you see that neighborhood kids who spend time with our medical student mentors do better when it comes to high school graduation rates. Clinically, this puts out hundreds of fresh medical doctors with better understanding and competence in important areas involving cultural diversity and social challenges. So for society, the program is a big winner at many levels.”
