Student panel to highlight medical summit honoring National Minority Health Month at Medgar Evers College

By David Gil de Rubio | dgilderubio@mec.cuny.edu

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Black people have the highest death rate for cancer overall. It’s a sobering fact that is a primary driver for Medgar Evers College getting involved with Going for Gold, a multi-year initiative launched by the CEO Roundtable on Cancer. 

This program is a partnership the latter has entered into with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). Global health care companies Amgen and Merck are partners along with analytics leader SAS.

Going for Gold focuses on improving health equity, education, navigation, and access in communities disproportionately affected by cancer. Medgar Evers College applied for and was accepted into this accredited program last year. The end result was a $150,000 grant awarded for the next three years in which the school can speak and partner with different medical professionals and organizations.

Last year’s inaugural Rock Your Health — the brand developed locally to support the Going for Gold campaign — event was a two-day symposium held in October. Panels centered on health awareness and accessing resources were a major component of Going for Gold. 

Students, faculty, staff and community members can expect more of the same on Tuesday, April 22 on the Medgar Evers College campus.

Rock Your Health centers on five pillars of cancer awareness — Health Education & Navigation; Prevention & Early Detection; Advancing Treatment; Survivorship and Well-Being. These themes will be showcased throughout this day-long affair. A continental breakfast will be provided in the AB1 building with panels rolling out in the EOJ auditorium from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

For Susan Haynes, Executive Advisor to the President for Strategic Initiatives and the event’s organizer, the timing for Going for Gold couldn’t be better.

“April is National Minority Health Month,” Haynes pointed out. “We added a community component where we want to do some things around wellness, well-being and that all relates to cancer. Cancer is the backdrop if you will, but you know survivorship is based on your overall health and wellness. You have to have the holistic — your preventative steps that include connecting with your medical team as well as staying on top of diet and fitness. All of that plays a role in how you survive with this disease.”

She added, “This time, we’re going to do something similar to what we did in October. We’ll have a student-led panel. The students will talk about what it means to lead a healthy lifestyle and how that relates to being a good student. They’re just going to have a conversation. We’ll have a student-athlete and three other students, so they’ll talk about their diet, how they exercise and what they do in their spare time.”

A student panel moderated by Office of Health Services Director Althea Willie will feature Christian Moran, Sabrina Ceballos, Mya Dupri Mungo and Aaliyah Bartholomew. 

Bartholomew, a senior majoring in biology with an environmental science minor with goals of becoming an osteopathic physician, was particularly excited to be invited in as a participant. A stellar track athlete, the native of Grenada feels the tenants of Going for Gold gibe well with her hectic and high-energy lifestyle.

“With the event having the theme ‘Living Your Best Healthy Life,’ it just reinforces that we should always be conscious of our health and not just when we go to the doctor for our annual physical,” Bartholomew explained. “It should be something we should concern ourselves with every day. And living your best healthy life is not just about what you eat or even how you exercise. Mental health is a big part of it. I think an event like this, especially having a strong emphasis on cancer — we’re showing that living your best healthy life is something we should all be conscious of. And coming together in this way as a group that is saying we know this is important and we want to show people why.” 

The second panel of the morning, which will be a medical professionals panel, will be moderated by Peter Holoman, Senior Director of Advancement and Strategic Partnerships. The participants will be Dr. Shirley Daniels, Chair of the Medgar Evers College Nursing Department, Dr. Michael Caldwell (Meharry Medical College), Crystal Marsonia (Kings County Hospital) and Dr. Roscoe Ramsey. 

The panelists will be discussing the medical part of the cancer equation when it comes to what people need to be doing to maintain best health practices when it comes to overall wellness and well-being.

The afternoon’s post-lunch session will center on Project NIA, an award-winning conversational triage tool that helps support Black women with their breast health. This part of the program aims to empower Black women 25-45 years of age with education about breast cancer risk favors, signs and symptoms of breast cancer and understanding of necessary resources. With a 2022 American Cancer Society study revealing that Black women are still more likely to die from breast cancer despite having lower breast cancer incidence rates, Haynes 

“We have a representative from Merck and she is going to do a webinar on NIA,” Haynes said. “This interactive program about breast cancer asks you questions about your health, when you’ve had mammograms, if you’re predisposed to breast cancer in your family—genetics and that kind of thing. It’ll be like a webinar, but she’s going to come in person to answer questions.”

One facet that will be explored are SDOH (Societal Determinants of Health) factors. They are economic stability, education access and quality, health care access and quality, neighborhood and built environment and social and community context. Haynes’ hope is that attendees will come away from the day’s event with the understanding that they have agency when it comes to staying on top of their overall health choices. Advocacy and education are the tip of the spear for Rock Your Health.

“What we would like to do is develop an ongoing program throughout the year and the semesters that provides some kind of avenue for our staff, faculty and students to engage with a preventative and awareness program centered on health and wellness for cancer prevention and survivors,” Haynes said. 

“The importance of Rock Your Health is to get people thinking about their overall health. We’re going to have someone from Kings County Hospital to talk about the state of health in the city, particularly our Black and Brown communities. The importance of the event is awareness and to get people to start thinking about their health. Specifically, for this program, its cancer. Cancer is probably one of the number one reasons for death in our communities and a lot of the diseases are preventable. That is really the overall purpose—we want people to be healthy,” she added.