On May 25th 2023, Fajar Alam, 2nd year COM student, CUP AHEC Scholar, and the 2023 AHEC Health Equity Intern, led a virtual poster presentation on behalf of the Maine Area Health Education Center (Maine AHEC) to a panel of judges with representation from the National AHEC Organization and the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Bureau of Health Workforce (BHW). Fajar presented ‘Shared Learning when AHEC Scholars Develop and Participate in the Delivery of Health Career Programs for High School Students’ about bringing together UNE health professions students and high school students from Portland and Lewiston to learn more about health careers using interactive, hands-on sessions designed by the UNE students.
This project was especially important to Fajar, because of her own experience, “Growing up in a low income area as a daughter of immigrants, I witnessed first-hand the health disparities that vulnerable communities face. Being conscientious of these barriers is what inspired me to apply for the Health Equity Intern position with MaineAHEC. This project allowed several UNE health professional school students, including myself, to work with refugee and immigrant high school students in a mentoring role and our project showed bidirectional benefits for both groups. Presenting this project to the National AHEC Organization gave me the opportunity to speak to likeminded individuals about the importance of fostering diversity in the healthcare workforce and showcase how our project can be utilized as a means to do this.”
Staff members Zoe Hull, Adina Bercowicz, and Kira Rodriguez from the Maine AHEC (within the UNE Center for Excellence in Public Health) collaborated with Fajar on the poster. The poster will next be presented in-person at the National AHEC Organization Bi-Annual meeting in Salt Lake City in June.