By MAAB President Nupur Ghoshal, ’01 PhD, ’03 MD

In my last letter I ended with a call to action asking each of you to mentor our Feinberg students. Since then, we, your Northwestern University Medical Alumni Association Board, have decided to set the tone and pace for mentorship. While we are most visible during the spring Alumni Weekend, we also meet in the fall to continue to move our mission forward. The fall meeting may seem off cycle and off season, but it certainly is not off track in giving back to the school that gave us so much during our formative years. 

To remain student centered, we partnered with the Augusta Webster, MD, Office of Medical Education (AWOME) to ensure that our programming, be it in person or virtual, would dovetail with events already on the student calendar. Alignment with AWOME helped us with effective connection and mentorship as we continued to offer dinners and discussions through the Alumni Physicians of Feinberg (APF). APF brings alumni together with students over dinner on campus to learn about the lives of physicians, the specialties, and practices they have chosen. APF events are scheduled throughout the year as alumni are back in Chicago. In fall 2024, we presented four APFs, and we have room for more in the new year. If you find yourself in Chicago, please consider participating in an APF. This format has worked so well that we’ve developed another iteration called Dinners with a Doc. These gatherings are even more casual and bring together a Feinberg graduate or two with a smaller group of students over a dinner off campus. This smaller format allows us to build strong connections with the students. Conversations range from learning about our daily work and lives outside of medicine to learning about postgraduate training opportunities. We, in turn, learn about their current medical school experience. The night before our fall meeting, alumni and students got the opportunity to engage with one another during various Dinners with a Doc. Talks are underway to expand these dinners into more frequent offerings. 

Alumni who prefer to engage with students on virtual platforms are invited to participate through the newly launched Alumni and Student Network, which brings together alumni and Feinberg students throughout the year. It is yet another way for you to mentor students from afar in very meaningful ways. We can provide guidance on selecting a specialty or subspecialty, and these interactions have been particularly useful prior to residency interviews.  

A conversation leading to mentorship is an easy ask for us to fulfill and is exceedingly impactful to students. I encourage you to seek out these opportunities, and we are listening for additional ideas and approaches as well. It is a wonderful time to be able to interact with and influence the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Nupur Ghoshal, ’01 PhD, ’03 MD, MAAB President

Ongoing discussions among alumni and students who identify as women have given rise to another virtual series called Women in White Coats, engaging alumni from across the country to speak on topics ranging from leadership to motherhood in medicine. This series is just taking off and had its inaugural session in October with Yara Mikhaeil-Demo, ’12 MD, assistant professor in the Department of Neurology, speaking about creating a career with purpose. I was able to attend this inaugural session, and it was riveting. Students posed great questions that stimulated fantastic conversations. Plans for more Women in White Coats sessions are underway. We welcome anyone interested to reach out to the Medical Alumni Association Board via the Alumni Relations Office, and we will happily bring you into the fold.  

To practice what I preach, I took my own challenge of mentoring students. In a discussion over lunch with students during Alumni Weekend last spring, I learned about Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) students who had questions about their combined training, career opportunities, and work-life integration. That conversation quickly materialized into me serving as a panel discussant during their MSTP Student-Faculty Retreat two months later. It was fulfilling for me to be on that panel and speak about challenges that are unique to MSTP graduates, and I believe the students found it informative as well.  

Your board is keeping its eyes and ears open and working hard to best meet the needs of the students. A conversation leading to mentorship is an easy ask for us to fulfill and is exceedingly impactful to students. I encourage you to seek out these opportunities, and we are listening for additional ideas and approaches as well. It is a wonderful time to be able to interact with and influence the next generation of healthcare professionals.