Since 2014, The Minority Association of Pre-Medical and Pre-Health students (MAPS) at Texas A&M has set its goal to increase the number of students who get into medical school throughout the country.
MAPS achieves this ambition by pairing its members with current mentors from A&M’s medical school, encouraging members to focus on volunteering and organizing in sending their members to yearly medical conferences.
MAPS president and biomedical science senior MaKenzie Lee said MAPS members hold a lot of pride in their volunteer work with the Boys and Girls Club and the Brazos Valley Food Bank. Anabel Adu, biology junior and social chair of MAPS, said volunteering is an important step in gaining critical communication skills that are needed for working in the medical field.
“As a health professional, it is not going to be all about you, we are going to be helping other people,” Adu said. “Volunteering is important not just for our medical school applications but also so the members can have opportunities to help out in the community. This helps our members solidify that this is what you will be doing in the future.”
Lee said the main benefit of being in MAPS is being able to get insight from the mentorship pairing program. Adu said the focus on having a mentorship pairing is to give members insight into the world of medical school that they would not otherwise receive.
Princess Draine, general studies sophomore and second-year member of MAPS, said the benefit of having a mentor is an aspect of the organization she values.
“Having a mentor at A&M’s medical school is so helpful because we can ask them questions and know that they have already gone through the whole medical school application process,” Draine said.
While Draine said the mentorship program has been influential, she said the biggest benefit for her has been learning how to network at the various medical conferences MAPS members attend.
“I got to spend four days with MAPS at a medical conference in Georgia last semester,” Draine said. “We got to go to the conferences with our mentors from A&M’s medical school which made the event even more fun.”
In addition to conferences and mentorships, Adu said as an organization they wanted to focus on the social aspect of MAPS as well by creating the first MAPS Week this year. The events included a profit share at Yogurtland, an OPSA presentation, study night, game night and ended the week by volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club.
“Our events are all about our new members getting the chance to bond with the officers,” Adu said. “I know this week was test week so having a game night for members to come and hang out while getting to know other members and officers in MAPS was really nice.”
Lee said she hopes that the MAPS Week events lead to closer relationships between members and officers and provide a welcoming environment for potential new members interested in joining.
“MAPS is an organization where we strive to foster good relationships among our members,” Lee said. “It is a tight-knit community and it is by far the most intimate pre-medical setting that you can get at A&M. You get to be surrounded by students who are just like you who are all striving towards a common goal.”
