By Gillian Taylor | Staff Writer
The Global Surgery Student Alliance (GSSA) has packed a full schedule of meetings and events this semester after the club was dissolved in previous years due to COVID-19.
The GSSA is a national student-led global surgery organization. Although most chapters are at medical schools, Baylor is one of the few undergraduate universities that hosts a chapter. The mission of the GSSA includes educating, inspiring and uniting members through engagement and mentoring on global surgery.
As part of its first events since returning to active club status, the organization will be holding a virtual networking fair on Oct. 4, allowing students to connect with medical personnel from all over the globe.
San Jose, Calif., junior and GSSA co-president Lakshmi Ramesh said the group has invited surgeons, medical residents, physicians and a variety of other health care officials to attend the Zoom meeting.
The virtual fair will allow students to meet with health professionals, discover future internship and job opportunities and learn about valuable skills needed to excel in their medical career, Ramesh said.
“Our goal is to break the toxic mindset that it’s wrong to ask for help from medical personnel who are higher achieved than you,” Ramesh said.
The GSSA will have other events throughout the semester that will provide resources and tools for those interested in entering the health professional world, according to Ramesh.
Ramesh also said in the past few years, the organization dissolved due to COVID-19. However, she said GSSA officers have been working since February to reinstate the group on campus, even working over the summer to plan events and meetings for members this year.
Though the organization provides students with valuable opportunities and helps jump-start their medical careers, Ramesh said the GSSA’s main ideal is to bring awareness to surgical inequities. The GSSA directs its focus to all aspects of surgery — including anesthesia, OB-GYN and nursing — in underserved populations in countries of all income levels.
Ramesh said she believes the GSSA’s education and awareness will help change the infrastructure of inequities and are the first step to solving the issue.
Frisco sophomore and GSSA secretary Kisana Ngwenya said many people are unaware of how their privilege translates into the medical world. With the GSSA’s leadership board being mostly minority- and female-dominated, she said she hopes the officers’ perspectives will inspire more minorities to join.
Not everyone has access to resources to educate themselves and spread awareness about medical inequities, Ramesh said, and those privileged enough to do so are unaware of the issue altogether.
“Baylor students are fortunate to have access to the internet, libraries, classes, professors, peers,” Ramesh said. “So we hope they can use that educational tool and that privilege to go out and make change in the world.”
