Melanin and Medicine began in 2019 as a way for Black students at UCLA pursuing health care careers to support each other.
But the club quickly expanded its mission – evolving into a nonprofit organization with the mission of supporting Black pre-health students and the greater Los Angeles community, said Laila Harris, the group’s chair of cardiology and assistant project service director.
Harris, a fourth-year physiological science student, said the club provides members with a variety of resources. For example, Melanin and Medicine connects students with research opportunities, provides scholarships for MCAT prep courses and offers personal statement workshops, she added.
“Our main goal is to revolutionize the future of medicine so that there are more Black doctors in the field and so that we can improve the quality of medicine that we’re providing to people of all different walks of life,” Harris said.
The club focuses on four key disciplines relevant to Black communities: cardiology, women and community health, neurology, and infectious disease, according to the club’s website.
The club also offers a service branch to run LA community projects, said Daniel Ikhimiukor, a third-year psychobiology student and the club’s co-director of publicity. The club tackles historic institutional barriers by spreading knowledge and education among the UCLA community, he added.
“The more people are aware of something, the more possible it becomes,” Ikhimiukor said.
Harris also said the club hosts health fairs in south LA to provide free health screenings, food, workshops and pamphlets regarding topics such as heart and respiratory health.
Zamijah Oshilim, a general intern for the club, said Melanin and Medicine provides a platform for students to access resources including peer-facilitated tutoring workshops and partnerships with pre-health prep companies such as The Princeton Review.
Oshilim, a third-year neuroscience student, also said the club hosts weekly meetings ranging from informative presentations to interactive game nights, fostering community among not only UCLA members but also across town through a partnership with USC’s African Americans in Health.
The club will host its largest event of the year, its fifth annual research symposium, on Wednesday.
The symposium is a quarterlong culmination of student research in which members have the opportunity to develop proposals addressing various pressing issues affecting the Black community, Harris said. The project also gives the students the opportunity to be mentored by a UCLA faculty member and learn about real-world research, giving them valuable and useful experience, she added.
This research also allows students to learn why certain diseases may affect Black communities more than others, Ikhimiukor said. Being able to partake in different service events, research and educational initiatives enables members to feel that they are a part of something bigger, he added.
Ikhimiukor said one of his favorite moments with the club was an event in which medical students from the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science – as part of the joint UCLA and CDU chapter of Black Men in White Coats, a student group devoted to increasing the number of Black male doctors – came to UCLA and and discussed their journeys in health care.
“You hear people have been through it and got through it and probably even had maybe even worse struggles than you,” he said. “When you can see it in front of you – someone, living proof of someone that did something that you want to do – it’s very helpful.”
For Harris, finding community at UCLA has been the most rewarding part of her journey as a member of the club.
“I’m so blessed to have these senses of communities,” Harris said. “I advise all of those who move beyond Melanin and Medicine: If not actual tangible skills, if not actually some things that you can add to your resume – walk away knowing that a community out there always exists, and you have access to it.”