By Giselle Lee | Staff Writer
For domestic students, pursuing a career in healthcare is straightforward: you join one of the eight pre-health programs on offer, put in the research hours and long study sessions, and the only obstacle left is applying to medical school or other postgraduate opportunities. For international students, the journey faces challenges before they even set foot on campus.
With changing immigration policies and growing uncertainty over work authorization for foreign nationals, one student organization on campus hopes to help pre-health international students gain a competitive edge.
The Bears International Medical Student Association (BIMSA) began with the personal experience of Seoul, South Korea, sophomore Christian Seoha Lee, who co-founded the organization and currently serves as president. He said pre-health “looked different” as an international student once he dived deep into the process.
“I was often told that a lot of [advisors] didn’t know what to do about me,” Lee said. “A lot of them just referred me to different places, so I thought, why not just integrate all of these issues into one and we can all just help each other.”
Lee is no stranger to adaptability. After living in five different countries across three continents, he said the community of international students at BIMSA is incredibly uplifting and has been crucial to the organization’s development.
“We have a very positive environment compared to what you would expect,” Lee said. “You’d expect a competitive or even a pessimistic environment because international students compete, but that’s not who we really are. We show each other maximum support, and we really do love each other.”
BIMSA is multifaceted — its services range from navigating immigration policy to providing mentorship and hosting international medical student panels.
Lahore, Pakistan, sophomore Alizeh Ghuman, BIMSA’s Events Chair, said she gained a better understanding of the medical school application process through the organization.
“When it comes to an international student, you’re supposed to have a well-rounded application, but then you have that international label, which means that you don’t get the benefits of in-state or out-of-state students,” Ghuman said.
Compared to other pre-health organizations on campus, Ghuman said she felt a sense of belonging with BIMSA because “everyone had the same importance.”
“Whenever we have an event, or we’re trying to do a meeting, we are all present and working together,” Ghuman said. “Everyone has a voice, everyone has an idea, and they all matter, which is the one thing I noticed and stood out to me that no matter what position we were at.”
For Los Gatos, California, junior Raha Hajiseyedjavadi, her role extends beyond professional development. As a member of the Law and Policy team in BIMSA, she said she hopes to lighten the “daunting and difficult task” of breaking into the American healthcare world for international students.
“This field is extremely competitive, and I can’t even imagine how it would be like for students that don’t even have access to all the opportunities that I have,” Hajiseyedjavadi said. “There’s also a lot of aspects that go beyond just the science and the medicine. It’s kind of shaping issues that determine students’ paths into the healthcare system.”
Hajiseyedjavadi said her role oversees “all the background things” pre-health international students should look out for and hopes to better prepare or educate them on the relationship between law and medicine.
“We want to have discussions so people are more comfortable talking about it,” Hajiseyedjavadi said. “We might not have all of the answers, but we are trying to be a great resource for not only international students, but for students that want to know more about that world and the intersection of law and medicine and how those things come together and how we can help international students in our community.”
Fundraising and Scholarships Chair Vrinda Tadepalli, a sophomore from Chicago, said finding scholarships is a “tedious” process for international students and urged Baylor to provide more assistance with housing needs or expand financial resources, as they look to become a certified organization.
“Anything helps at this point, because not many international students can actually apply for scholarships,” Tadepalli said. “We’re planning on making BIMSA a PHP-certified organization. Hopefully that comes into place soon so more people can join this without worrying about over-commitment.”
