Promoting a Sense of Belonging Among Underrepresented Medical Students Through Cross-Cultural Programming

Background and Hypothesis: Despite improvements in recruiting trainees from underrepresented backgrounds, there is a paucity in programming designed to enhance underrepresented in medicine (URM) students’ sense of belonging and well-being. In addition to academic stressors, URM students may experience discrimination and stereotype threat, all of which contribute to burnout. Although Indiana University School of Medicine is one of the largest and more diverse medical schools in the country, URM students continue to experience disconnectedness from peers, mentors, and faculty from URM backgrounds due to the regional campus model. To address the complex challenges URM students face, the Cross-Cultural Student Success Retreat (CCSSR) was created. We hypothesize that URM students will feel an increased sense of belonging through participation in the retreat. Project Methods: The CCSSR was developed in partnership between Medical Student Education and the Office of Diversity Affairs as a response to concerns of isolation and burnout among URM students. The program is designed to be cohort style where day-long events take place twice an academic year to engage students with minority faculty and activities designed to promote sense of belonging, retention, and success. The retreat is broken into four sessions; self-discovery, self-efficacy, bias/perception, and well-being. Each of the sessions includes a presentation, discussion, and activity. Results: The retreat was found to be a success, with positive responses received from 36 participants across each session. Outcomes included an increased awareness of personal biases and prejudices, heightened sense of belonging among peers, and a feeling of empowerment to make their environment more inclusive. Conclusion and Potential Impact: The positive outcomes of the retreat strongly suggest a need to implement long and short-terms programs catering specifically to the success of URM students. Ultimately, addressing the specific challenges faced by URM students will decrease rates of burnout and isolation among this population.

Songs of the Golden Age in the Democratic Republic

Following the Geneva Accords of 1954, the VOV employed an array of ensembles that performed newly composed red music and revolutionary songs (ca khúc cách mạng) from the First Indochina War. Chapter 3 examines the construction of the DRV’s broadcasting and performing arts infrastructure at a time when radio was the principal mass medium for sound-based communications and the primary source for news and cultural programming. These infrastructural developments coincided with an escalation of tensions in the Second Indochina War (1955–75), when the DRV used radio to inundate southern listeners with their propaganda. With a particular focus on the central site for cultural production (state radio) and the most prominent musical form of the era (red music), this chapter illustrates how the DRV’s Ministry of Culture used radio productions on socialist themes as technologies of governmentality. Broadcasters reified the roles of men, women, and children in the ears and minds of their listening public. Their productions also played a crucial role in defining cultural boundaries between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as broadcasters sought to sonically territorialize the socialist state. Based on interviews with former station employees, analyses of iconic songs, and archival documents, the research suggests the ongoing veneration of singers, songs, and stories from this golden age of radio music constructs a particular narrative about Vietnamese history that commemorates the achievements of the CPV and perpetuates its control in the reform era.

Tolerable Suboptimization: Racial Consequences of Defunding Public Universities

We argue that the public defunding of public higher education and turn to private revenue streams—for example, non-resident tuition, grants, philanthropy, and corporate sponsorship—generates organizational racial resource disparities. We draw on a year-long qualitative case study of a University of California campus with a majority Latinx and low-income student body, including ethnographic observations and interviews with administrators, staff, and students, to argue that these disparities may impede majority-marginalized universities’ abilities to serve their student body. Our data demonstrate how limited organizational resources impact the provision of academic advising, mental health, and cultural programming for racially marginalized students. We articulate a racial neoliberal cycle of resource allocation: Colorblind constructs of “merit” lead to racial segregation and generate racialized organizational hierarchies that result in unequal organizational access to private resources. University leadership at resourced-starved majoritymarginalized universities may respond to fiscal constraints by accepting and normalizing suboptimal support for students—what we refer to as “tolerable suboptimization.” Tolerable suboptimization may also be unevenly applied within universities, such that supports accessed or needed by marginalized students are the most impacted. As a consequence, institutional racism can take on the appearance of financial necessity.

Dr. Obari Adeye Cartman: Healing, Youth Work, and Masculinity

Dr. Obari Adeye Cartman is an accomplished author, and he serves as the program director for Real Men Charities, Inc. This Chicago-based organization works with men, youth, and families to promote wellness through cultural programming. Dr. Cartman is also the President of the Chicago Association of Black Psychologists, associate editor of South Side Drive Magazine, and maintains a directory of Black mental health providers. Having been raised in a family that honored African traditions, his work marries theory and practice in very intentional and critical ways.

Constructing a suitable platform for public health: Radio propaganda, instruction, and “The case of Elisa Cedillo”

The Mexican government communicated public health information in the early 20th century during radio programs dedicated to women. Turning to a platform committed to instruction and cultural programming, it publicized health education bulletins, which were sandwiched between weather reports and on-air cooking classes. These daily reports offered practical advice and information on proper hygiene and diseases, which gave the government credibility to dispel misinformation campaigns when necessary. The frequency of the broadcasts, moreover, was a reminder that health was an important aspect of everyday life.

Enhancing Intercultural Competency Though Co-Curricular Activities in Higher Education

In response to increasing student diversity, universities have begun to implement programs that provide experiences so that students may expand their understanding of cultural differences. This chapter focuses on the implementation of inter-cultural programming in a large university in the northeastern United States. The university is highly-selective, draws students globally, and diversity is evident across racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, national, and religious identities. This chapter focuses on three signature programs and examines the programs' underlying theoretical frameworks, program implementation, and program outcomes. Each program is presented as a case and program evaluation data is utilized to understand the learning process. The advocacy group is the subject of a mixed methods research project and preliminary data will be presented. The chapter includes a discussion of best practices and links theoretical approaches to practice.

Fairy tale images as a component of cultural programming: gender aspect

The paper considers male and female images in the Yakut fairy tales as a component of cultural programming of gender behavior in a tribal society. The analysis of the Yakut fairy tales reveals that the main male characters whole being integral are represented as a rule by three types – in the image of heroes, hunters and poor men. Female images are more diverse, among them there are girls of the Upper World and udagans (shaman women), endowed with magical powers and the gift of transformation; girls of the Middle World, who can be both passive and active characters; the third group of female images is represented by old women, who are often embodied in the collective image of the old woman Simekhsin. The results of the analysis suggest that the masculine images correspond to the stereotypical male behavior patterns in the patriarchate society, while the feminine images may deviate from the accepted gender stereotypes for various reasons.

Transitioning, Belonging, and the Black Student Experience: A Phenomenological Study

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the orientation and transitional experiences of Black undergraduate students at Metropolitan State University (MSU, pseudonym) an urban, public research university in the southeastern region of the United States. MSU is a unique research site for this study, as Black students’ six-year graduation rates equal that of White students. Using sense of belonging as a conceptual framework, the research team collected data from 28 participants in seven focus groups throughout the 2018-2019 academic year. Findings revealed that participants experienced disparate orientation and transitional experiences, as well as a poor racial climate throughout their time at MSU. Specifically, participants noted a shortage of Black faculty, limited Black cultural programming, and a need for identity-based space. Among working with campus partners to improve the racial climate, implications for orientation professionals include recruiting professional and student staff members who represent the racial composition of the university and ensuring culturally relevant content during orientation programs.