Black History Month

Black Health Symposium an ‘empowering’ event

Black Medical Students Association welcomes more than 60 high school students and undergraduate learners to symposium

The medical student is holding scissors in one hand and tweezers in the other. He is showing the undergraduate student how to suture.
Estimated Read Time:
3 minutes
Ben Woldu, a third-year medical student, shows Edwin Mugisha Kayonga, a UM undergraduate student, how to suture.
Ben Woldu, a third-year medical student, shows Edwin Mugisha Kayonga, a UM undergraduate student, how to suture.
Estimated Read Time:
3 minutes

Eliana Gebreselassie has attended several health-care events to learn more about becoming a physician. But the Black Health Symposium the high school student attended on Feb. 7 was unique.

“This is the first one where I’ve seen a bunch of Black excellence, and it’s run by a lot of Black people, so it was empowering,” said Gebreselassie, a Grade 12 student who co-founded a medical club at the University of Winnipeg Collegiate. 

Empowering future Black physicians is one of the goals of the symposium organized by the Black Medical Students Association (BMSA), which includes 19 members from across all four years of the Max Rady College of Medicine doctor of medicine (MD) program.

Two people pose for a photo.
[Left to right] Grade 12 students Eliana Gebreselassie and Elim Daniel have their sights set on becoming physicians.

You belong here

More than 60 high school students and undergraduate learners registered for the third-annual event on the Bannatyne campus. The full-day symposium included keynote speeches, workshops and a panel discussion.

Emma McKay-Sharpe, a first-year UM medical student and BMSA’s director of communications, said she hopes the symposium motivated the students to pursue a career in health care because representation is so important.  

“Once these pre-meds and high school students see that there are other people that look like them in these health-care fields, they’ll feel as if they can do it as well,” McKay-Sharpe said.

Portrait of Emma McKay-Sharpe.
Emma McKay-Sharpe

 If you can see it, you can be it

Patricia Charity Machekera, a second-year UM medical student and BMSA’s co-senior executive, said the group holds the symposium in February for a reason.  

“It’s Black History Month, so this event is also in commemoration of the amazing Black health-care professionals who have come before us and who paved the path for us so we can become trailblazers,” Charity Machekera said.

The Black Health Symposium was funded in part by the Promoting Black Flourishing Fund.

The morning began with keynote speeches by Minister of Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care Uzoma Asagwara and Dr. Andrew Ajisebutu, a UM neurosurgery resident and Max Rady College of Medicine Class of 2019 valedictorian.

Portrait of Patricia Charity Machekera.
Patricia Charity Machekera
We want to provide knowledge to pre-meds that says, ‘Hey, this is the path that you can take.'

Patricia Charity Machekera, second-year UM medical student and BMSA’s co-senior executive

Asagwara spoke about their background as a basketball player, activist, registered psychiatric nurse, and now, Manitoba’s health minister. Asagwara told the students that they can be exactly who they are and get to where they want to go.  

“I think that’s the beauty of being a part of a community that is so diverse. The Black community is not a monolith. We are an incredibly diverse and beautiful community, and you get to be exactly who you are, and be authentic, and pursue your dreams, and be successful. You can do that,” Asagwara said.

Joy is the key to success

Ajisebutu is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Toronto, and his research is focused on adult brain tumours and improving outcomes for patients with complex neurological disease. He told the students that to be successful, they need to look for something beyond their careers.  

“I’m not going to say it’s love, because that’s, I think, a little bit corny. But I think at the end of the day, it’s really joy. You have to enjoy the thing you’re doing. Joy is the key to success,” Ajisebutu said.

For Elim Daniel, a Grade 12 student at Grant Park High School, the two keynote speeches resonated with her.

“What I took away from the speakers today was that, regardless of how difficult it is, you should do it if you enjoy it. That was something that was emphasized today. If you enjoy it, then you should pursue it,” said Daniel, who has always wanted to become a physician.

Two people sit at a table. One is speaking into a microphone.
[Left to right] Uzoma Asagwara and Dr. Andrew Ajisebutu answer audience questions after their keynote speeches.

The four workshops offered at the symposium included how to suture and tips on how to apply to medical school. A panel discussion on navigating the early years of medicine ended the afternoon.  

“We want to provide knowledge to pre-meds that says, ‘Hey, this is the path that you can take,’” Charity Machekera said.

By

Matthew Kruchak