Angelina Palacios, Class 2023

I have come to learn that WSU is a no-barrier kind of school. If a student sees a need for change or has an idea for a volunteer activity, faculty only asks how we can make that happen.

I grew up in Southwest Detroit. My decision to go into medicine was inherently intertwined with my commitment to my community and the city. Knowing that I want to practice in the city made my decision to come to the Wayne State University School of Medicine was pretty easy. I knew that at Wayne I would be receiving a hands-on education that would allow me to further understand the needs of the patients in the city. I know that by the end of my education here, I will have both the tools and experience needed to make a difference in the health care of the population of Detroit.

I have come to learn that WSU is a no-barrier kind of school. If a student sees a need for change or has an idea for a volunteer activity, faculty only asks how we can make that happen. For instance, at the beginning of the pandemic, the Latino Medical Student Association wanted to find a way to still care for the population we serve while not being allowed to volunteer in person. We decided that gathering information on resources available to residents and disseminating the latest guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be the best way we could help. But we didn’t know the best way to get this information to those who needed it. This is where our course director, Dr. Jennifer Mendez, stepped in. She partnered with a community organization, Brilliant Detroit, that provided us with a list of families who would appreciate this information through “tele-check-in” calls. Dr. Mendez helped LMSA reach community members effectively and efficiently.

The biggest advantage of learning medicine at WSU is that everyone here has one goal in common: wanting to help the patient population here. In other institutions, students can get held up with competing for the best grades or the best clerkship locations. What I have seen at Wayne is a sense of comradery where we know that it’s best for patients if we all succeed. There is a huge Latino population in Detroit that tends to be overlooked when thinking of the patient population here. I am here to dedicate myself to that population that is need of better health care. Besides that, Wayne is the one of the best places to learn how to treat a diverse population. Detroit is a very racially, financially and spiritually diverse population. Learning how to treat this population will translate into being able to practice medicine anywhere.