Navigating covid-19 to Bring Access to STEM Mentorship to Bipoc/underrepresented Students

Background: The Mentorship Educational Directive (MED) Program is a medical student-run initiative connecting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) high school students interested in healthcare with BIPOC medical student mentors. Early health career pipeline programs contribute to achieving health equity by working to assure an adequate and culturally representative health workforce, which is shown to improve access to, and quality of health services for underserved populations. The Health Education Resource Opportunity (HERO) program is a community program focused on increasing the number of underrepresented high school students in STEM fields. The MED program partnered with HERO to add a medical student mentorship component with first- and second- year medical students.

Methods: Medical student leaders used a structured virtual platform for mentor/mentee engagement. The HERO program recruited mentees, and student leaders recruited mentors who completed extensive training and were paired via a speed-matching system. Student leaders conducted group sessions on Zoom using breakout rooms and videos as learning tools for demonstrations before students practiced techniques and concepts with their mentors. Mentors and mentees also participated in individual meetings. Following the program, mentors completed reflection questionnaires. We used descriptive and in vivo coding to analyze themes from the questionnaires.

Results: Mentors valued the program's structure, created cultural connections, became comfortable having difficult conversations, and felt empowered to mentor students. One of the most common themes was about mentorship; mentors stated they would seek additional opportunities to be mentors and that early mentorship is essential. Shared racial and cultural identities created a deeper connection between mentors and mentees. Mentors found comfort in discussing sensitive topics with their mentees and peers.

Conclusion: The MED Program facilitated engagement between medical student mentors and high school mentees using a virtual platform. Three themes emerged from the reflection questionnaires, including cultural connections and shared identities, empowerment of mentors, and comfort with conversations about sensitive topics. These are important findings since studies have shown that sustained relationships and community partnerships enhance students’ abilities in higher education. Our findings are a positive step in that direction since mentors expressed satisfaction in their mentoring relationships and felt like they made a positive impact on the students’ life and education. The HERO program is currently working with a new set of MED medical student leaders, planning for the coming year and addressing areas for improvement.
Overall, we concluded that a virtual BIPOC student mentorship program was a rewarding and meaningful experience for medical students. Areas for further study include analysis of high school student responses and expansion to additional communities. We anticipate that similar programs could potentially expand the network of BIPOC physicians and healthcare leaders, in turn inspiring upcoming generations of potential healthcare providers.