STUDENT LIFE

MENTORING MAKES GOOD MEDICINE…
FOR STUDENTS

BY MARYANN BRINLEY

When asked to add one more item to their "to-do" lists, medical students may moan under the considerable weight of what they must already master in four years. The burden of educational demands can be daunting, according to New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) students Ritu Sharma ’05 and Richard Agag ’04.

"I was overwhelmed at first," Sharma admits. "You could never understand what medical school is going to be like, or how hard it is, until you get here."

"You can study all day but at some point, you need to stop and make time for other things of importance in your life," Agag says.

Yet, along with 30 of their classmates, these students decided that mentoring 5- to 9-year-old Newark children in local classrooms once a week was worth putting on their busy agendas. Agag, who also mentored four years during college, says, "The value of mentoring is underestimated." The effect of such relationships might appear to go in one direction only, towards the child’s benefit. Yet, at least one study by NJMS student Lisa Lovas, president of SHARE (Student Health Advocacy and Resource Education), showed how positive the impact can be on volunteers as well.

Primary Start, a collaboration of UMDNJ’s Early Start Mentoring Program and the Social Decision Making and Problem Solving Program, is operated by the students with some guidance from Karen Shiffman Lateiner, MA, MEd. Supported by public and private funding, especially generous contributions from the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey since 1999, 175 mentors have met weekly, one-on-one with troubled children in four schools: Queen of Angels, Camden Street, Lincoln and 15th Avenue. Lateiner explains, "Acting out, low frustration tolerance and poor social skills at an early age can lead to more serious problem behaviors and put children at risk for poor academic performance, dropping out of school, substance abuse and delinquency."

The role of a mentor is to intervene early. The difference in a child’s life can be dramatic and Sharma’s experience is just one example. Last year, her little girl, a kindergartner, was so shy at the beginning of the year that she was unable to speak even in answer to a school nurse’s questions during a hearing test. By year’s end, her social skills had gone up more than 90 percent on one measurement. "Who would have thought I could make such a change?" Sharma asks. "I never felt burdened by the weekly commitment. I’d bring coloring books and I learned how to be patient and let her become comfortable with me." In terms of patient interaction, Sharma learned how to use "silence as a technique." "You have to realize that if you sit there in silence, if you give them time and make them comfortable talking with you, then they’ll give you the information you need."

An encounter with the nurse in June also convinced Sharma that her presence had been no small factor. "We did the hearing test again and she was so cooperative," the nurse reported. "Thank you so much."

Not a parent, professional counselor, social worker, or playmate, "A mentor praises, prods, connects and just listens sometimes," Lateiner explains. Agag believes that all kids need at least one other supportive person in life besides a family member or teacher, who may be too busy to offer enough time and individualized attention. For three years, he has mentored the same two boys. "The first year, after a few weeks of mentoring one of the children, he began to cry when I was leaving for the day," he says. "This is when it struck me how important mentoring is. For a child to become so attached to a stranger after a few weeks of mentoring is not natural. This was the reaction of a child who was starved for attention."

Offered as a non-credit elective, involvement in Primary Start also puts NJMS students out in the Newark community. "I like it here," Agag says. One of his fears about attending medical school was that every student would be from the same educational and social background."Students here are so talented and from all walks of life and all backgrounds. You sit down with someone and discover something else besides medicine that makes them special. Everyone has a story to tell." For some NJMS students, the experience of mentoring is one of them.