BaselineMed, an organization developed by four Brandeis undergraduate students, recently achieved nonprofit status. The organization seeks to provide “BIPOC high school and college students with a supportive online community of resources and connections” that will encourage them to pursue medicine in the future, according to a recent BrandeisNow article.
The four students spearheading the effort, Emma Ghalili ’22, Leah Naraine ’22, Jonathan Joasil ’22 and Fatim Kragbe ’23, each played distinct roles in founding and creating BaselineMed. According to the BrandeisNow report, the initial team had Ghalili as the executive director, Naraine as associate director, Kragbe as director for undergraduate writers and Joasil as director of physician outreach. An additional member of the initial team included Joli Vadil, from Stony Brook University in New York, who served as the director of community outreach.
Ghalili, Naraine, Joasil and Kragbe are all double majoring in Biology (BIOL) and Health: Science, Society and Policy (HSSP), and are all residents of New York.
Now, BaselineMed has recruited a “diverse group of premedical writers,” most of whom are students from Brandeis, according to the article. The students write articles and blog posts regarding work-life balance as science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) majors as well as provide advice for aspiring doctors or other medical professionals.
Additionally, Joasil is responsible for keeping in contact with and editing pieces submitted by practicing physicians to be posted on the BaselineMed website.
In addition to regularly posting helpful articles and content for BIPOC students at various stages in medical training, BaselineMed also organizes educational workshops and college application preparation sessions.
Ghalili first conceived of the idea for BaselineMed and collaborated with Lucas Malo, the Director of Community Service at Brandeis, in order to bring her project to fruition. The current board members shared her goal of better representation, resources and role models for aspiring medical professionals. Together they were able to take Ghalili’s original idea and create BaselineMed.
The board members received the Rich/Collins Community Impact Fellowship (R/C CLIF) to begin hosting workshops in their home state New York. The R/C CLIF has two central goals according to the information on its webpage. The first is to expand student involvement with the Waltham-Boston community. The second is to allow students to fine-tune their leadership abilities. The fellowship supplies students with “mini-grants” ranging from $500 to $4000. Additionally, the fellowship provides support for students applying in the pre-application process, leadership training and one-on-one mentorship.
The BaselineMed team’s goals aligned with the mission of the fellowship and provided an outline for a sustainable organization.
Other community service opportunities at Brandeis include the Community Engagement Ambassador Program (CEAP) and the Commitment to Service Award (CTSA). CEAP members work with the Department of Community Service to “build the capacity of all community service clubs,” according to the webpage. CTSA celebrates students who have applied knowledge obtained from their coursework to a prolonged community service project.
In the interview with BrandeisNow, Naraine said, “Most of the time, students of color will feel like the most doubted in the room. We’re working to change that.” The team shared their future plans to expand their organization by introducing BIPOC medical writers from across the country to share their advice.
To see the work of the nonprofit organization, you can visit their website baselinemed.com.
