Medical Students, Cancer Control and The Deaf Community

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The UCSD Cancer Center's mission is to reduce the cancer morbidity and mortality with a special focus on the medically underserved. The center's outreach program has been working closely with the Deaf community, a highly underserved group. This project will insure a stream of health and science professionals who are skilled in American Sign Language (ASL) and Deaf culture and are interested in cancer prevention, early detection, prompt intervention, and clinical trials. Ten UCSD medical students will take ASL classes as their first and second year electives. This special course will teach basic ASL proficiency and deaf culture awareness plus medical terminology in ASL (with a special focus on cancer related issues). During the summer between the first and second project will consist of six week ASL and Deaf culture immersion program at Gallaudet University the summer between students' first and second years of medical school. During weeks seven and eight, students will volunteer two weeks full time at a Deaf Community Service agency assignment in San Diego. Medical students will start a Pre-Health Professional ASL Club for undergraduates to: encourage those who are interested in ASL to consider careers in health and science professions: interest undergraduate pre-health profession students in taking ASL classes; create various opportunities for students to interact with the Deaf community, and to teach ASL vocabulary for medical terminology commonly used by the public. They will create a student led, year long health seminar series for the Deaf community in collaboration with Deaf Community Services of San Diego, Inc. The members of the Pre-Health Professional Club will help the medical students coordinate the Deaf community health education programs. During the fourth year of medical school students will choose one elective in an area that will give them the opportunity to interact with the Deaf community. This could be medical students internship at a summer camp for deaf children or an internship at the Student Health Center of the Mental Health Center at Gallaudet University.