Class 2008

Cynthia Benson

Allison Bloom

Leslie Bridges

Ashley Chapman

Nicole Coleman

Ericka Hersch

Gayatri Menon

Jennifer Lamneck

Sarah Pizzigati-LaRosa

Robert Zesut

Class 2007

Omar Al-Nouri

Mani Batchu

Dennis Bernier

Dana Block

Donnell owen

Ryan Chauffe

Nadine Chipon

Elizabeth Davis

Amber DeChambeau

Ann Duskin

David Fisher

Nicole Henry

Theresa Hess

James Hunt

Jennifer Parsons

Matthew Sarb

Jill Scarlett

Shivani Shah

Samantha G. Shelton-Hicks

Joanna Wahl

Sandra Williams

Paula Zozzaro-Smith

Class of 2006

Delcine Abraham

Andrea Ali

Sara Ansari

Elizabeth Arena

Danielle DeGennaro

Michael Escoto

Erin Gerhart

Monika Goyal

Carol Kitay

Natalie Mang

Jamie Matherly

Natascha Minidis

Carol Liebl

Luzan Philpotts

Manuel Rogriguez

Iris Saleh

Lior Shamai

Amber Stevens

Amber Uddin

Robyn Valdez

Introduction

This has been another exciting year for the Sigma Sigma Phi Xi Chapter at Nova

Southeastern University, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Having the opportunity to represent and lead this organization for a second year has been a true honor. I have watched us as an organization accomplish amazing things at our school and within the community. Each year we continue the traditions passed on to us as well as welcome new ideas and enthusiasm to exceed expectations. This year we started the semester with only ten members so we had a lot of work cut out for us to meet our goals. Although we have been very successful thus far with numerous community programs and our annual rotation luncheon we are excited about accepting new members in November and integrating them into our programs. The Xi chapter at NSUCOM looks forward to another productive and successful semester ahead.

Educational Programs

COM-Pals Program

Program Chairs: Melissa Hartman

COM-Pals’ goal is to promote osteopathic awareness to the undergraduate population. Understanding that many of the universities in our tri-county area are unaware of osteopathic medicine or that Nova Southeastern University houses a medical school, we plan to contact local pre-medical advisors and offer our students as liaisons and mentors. COM-Pals also plans on expanding our services to the entire state of Florida this year, reaching out to other universities as far north as UF and FSU with Alumni eager to educate their schools about our university.

Some of the services we are offering include:

1. Having medical students available to give private tours of NSU-COM.

2. Speaking to pre-medical clubs about our university and osteopathic medicine.

3. Having medical students available by e-mail to mentor undergraduates.

4. Allowing undergraduates to shadow a medical student for a half-day.

This program is in its third year of existence and we are trying to continue the great response that we received last year through our efforts. A future goal that we have is extending our services to other states to help spread the word about the Osteopathic profession.

Culture and Medicine

Program Chair: Open

This program began in the spring of last year in collaboration with IPSA. Each month a new culture was chosen and presented at an evening event by someone not of that culture. The event included food, music and most importantly a presentation and discussion of issues surrounding medicine pertaining to the cultures beliefs.

DOctor’s Bag Program

Program Chairs: Jennifer Lamneck & Leslie Bridges

The Doctor's bag program is one of our most well known service projects. We work with a non-profit organization called Family Central who has subsidized day care programs throughout Broward and Dade counties for the more than 40,000 underserved children of these areas. Every month Sigma Sigma Phi brings student volunteers to one of these day-care centers and we set up interactive stations for the children to become more comfortable with doctors, teach them what doctors do, and explain to them the different parts of the body.

Our interactive stations include: X-ray station - a small skeleton is used to teach the children about bones and an x-rays of a child’s hands is used for the kids to compare their own hands. Heart and Brain Station - plush models of hearts and stethoscopes are utilized so the kids can see and hear the heart. Foam models of the brain are used to teach children the importance of wearing helmets and taking care of the most important part of their body. We teach them that without the brain nothing else works. Eye and Ear Station – children learn how to look into the eye using a plastic ophthalmoscope and a plastic softball which has been colored to mimic the ocular muscles. We help the kids understand why you are not supposed to put objects into your ear. Then we let the kids play with large rubber ears and plastic otoscopes to look inside the ear. The children are also asked to draw what they see in the ears and eyes. Hygiene Station – this is where we discuss the importance of hand washing and band aids and then let the children play with band aids. Organ Station – We teach kids about organs thru a vest made with Velcro to place organs on, in the proper places complete with a headband for the brain. Children are taught the way the GI system works and the order in which food makes it through the body. Finally, the favorite station of the children is the Doctor Station in which we take a Polaroid picture of each child with our lab coat and a stethoscope to take home.

We always end the program with a wrap up session in which we review what was taught. Before each child leaves they receive a certificate with their name on it and the polaroid picture of themselves dressed in a doctor's lab coat. Also at the end of each program we give the day care director and the children a toy doctor bag and kit so that they can practice what they learned. This program has been a big success because the children love it. We have been asked many times to come back and teach to a different class at the same school because the children get so much out of it. We are anxious to spread this program throughout the state of Florida and the United States.

Medical Explorers

Program Chairs: Cynthia Benson and Nicole Coleman

This is a national program through Learning for Life, a program directed to educating high schools students about health care as a profession as well as instilling leadership and community service. This program first began at NSUCOM two years ago and last year became a Sigma Sigma Phi sponsored program. The group consists of approximately 25 high school students who come to NSUCOM weekly for an event. Thus far, we have recruited five new high schools, organized an ultrasound program, audiology workshop, pediatric ear infection workshop, OPP workshop, and nursing workshop. We have incorporated the other Health Professions programs at our school, including Pharmacy, Dentistry, Optometry and Occupational Therapy. Each department gives a short presentation about their profession and then allows the students to participate in a “hands-on” session, enabling them to get a sense of what the profession entails. In addition to the hands-on experiences we also have “College Night” where students are given the opportunity to ask questions about school, college, and future careers.

Pet Therapy

Program Chair: open

It is said that pets can lower your blood pressure, increase endorphins, and just put a smile on your face. Unfortunately, residents of most nursing homes are unable to keep pets. So, we decided to bring OUR pets to the residents! On any given visit, we have between 5 and 10 dogs of various breeds and sizes. We walk through the nursing home visiting the residents in the hallway, in their private room, or in the activity rooms. Even those residents that are non-verbal often respond with smiles when they see the dogs. We get many thanks from both the residents and the staff, and the dogs are a great ice-breaker to further conversations. We are currently only visiting one nursing home, but hope to expand this program to others in the area.

Pre-D.O.ctors Program

Program Chair: Ashley Chapman and Sarah Pizzigati-LaRosa

The Xi Chapter of Sigma Sigma Phi has always had a commitment to osteopathic awareness. Our goal this year is to expand the osteopathic awareness program to include multiple interactive teaching modalities as well as visit the medical magnet and HOSA (Health Occupation Students of America) programs at the local high schools. In South Florida many high schools students are lacking good role models and proper guidance in preparation for medical school and their future career options. We wanted to provide a role model in a fun and educational environment for the high school students as well as a channel for them to gain direct knowledge regarding osteopathic medicine.

Once or twice a month medical students volunteer their mornings/afternoons to this program. We go to a high school in the area and set up five different interactive stations. The first station is a medical education station in which the high school students are taught about the differences between osteopathic and allopathic medicine. At this station the students can ask any questions they may have about being accepted to medical school, how much work is involved, how much it costs, etc. The second station gives the students a chance to learn the purpose of taking a blood pressure, how to keep it down and how to perform one. The third station is the heart sound station where students can hear abnormal heart sounds, learn how to keep their heart healthy and how to use a stethoscope. The fourth station allows the students to understand the function of an otoscope/ophthalmoscope and to learn what they should and should not see when looking through one. The fifth station is dedicated to osteopathic medicine and to showing Osteopathic Manipulative Treatments. At this station, the high school students watch two medical students perform manipulations on each other. There is always a lot of interest in this station because they can see the difference that a psoas stretch makes or hear the thoracic vertebrae during the Texas Twist.

Many times the students we are addressing have an interest in science and medicine so this program gives them a chance to explore their interest and to see medical students that are excited about their future careers. We have such a great time doing this program because we see the impact we are making. These students are interested, they want to be involved. We get so many questions about how to get into medical school and what they can do to improve their chances. Some students are taking notes about how to take a blood pressure or what osteopathic medicine is all about. Each of us leaves this program excited and anxious for the next time we can do it.

Read-On Program

Program Chair: Gayatri Menon

Sigma Sigma Phi’s Xi Chapter started a program three years ago in order to help elementary school students improve their reading skills. Our goal is to become mentors for the children we work with by committing ourselves to the same classes. The result of this vision is a bi-monthly reading program for kindergarten through 5^th grade students at Royal Palm Elementary School in Broward County. The first book to introduce the program every year is What's In A Doctor's Bag?, by Dr. Neil Shulman. This beautifully written book is a fun and interactive way for children to learn about tools doctors use everyday. We hope to make a difference in the children’s lives by inspiring and encouraging them to improve their ability to read.

Community Service Events

Camp Boggy Creek

Program Chair: open

The Boggy Creek Gang Camp
Co-founders: General H. Norman Schwarzkopf & Paul Newman

The Boggy Creek Gang Camp is a not-for profit medical camping center specifically
designed and equipped for children ages 7-17 who have chronic or life
threatening illnesses. Camp Boggy Creek offers week long summer camp sessions,
family retreat weekends, and sibling weekend camps free of cost for chronically-
ill children and their family members. SSPHI members along with other students have the opportunity to volunteer for the weekend as “family pals” engaging in
various activities such as: swimming, archery, boating, horseback riding,
fishing, wood shop, and most importantly FUN! The mission of Camp Boggy Creek is to
enrich the lives of children who have life threatening illnesses by creating
camping experiences that are memorable, exciting, empowering and medically
sound. Unfortunately last semester we were unable to attend due to conflicts in scheduling but we hope to participate this spring again.

Senior Soirees Program

Program Chair: Ericka Hersch

"Senior Soirees” is a simple yet enriching experience that benefits not only a group of United States veterans, but also the NSU-COM students. The students travel to the VA nursing home in order to celebrate the holidays with our honored veterans. Some of the services our students provide at these events include bingo, singing, piano playing, and most importantly, company and conversation for the seniors. Students gain a new perspective on life as well as some wise advice from their senior friends. For some medical students, this may be their only exposure to the geriatric population, which will more than likely compose a large part of their future patient population. Senior Soirees holds annual events for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, and Easter, as well as a special caroling party for Christmas. The students that participate truly learn the importance of quality of life in caring for our elders. The one goal uniting us all in this undertaking is to simply give back and care for those who may or may not have someone else to care for them - a way of saying thanks to those who have fought for our country to give us the freedoms we enjoy today.

Campus Events

Rotation Luncheon

Program Chairs: Allison Bloom

After the huge success of the rotation luncheon in past years we repeated this event this year on October 8^th, 2005. The luncheon was held at the Renaissance hotel. A total of nineteen third and fourth year students returned for the luncheon to represent their respective core hospitals. Students shared their experiences and answered questions from one hundred second year medical students. This is such a valuable service to the students as they are given the opportunity to hear first hand information about the various hospital tracts in an unbiased atmosphere. Previously, the luncheon was only open to Sigma Sigma Phi members, however after realizing how beneficial the event has been the entire second year class is now invited to participate. To make this possible approximately 20 student organizations donated money to this event. Student’s feedback was very positive and in general students felt that the information and true student experiences presented at the luncheon will better assist them in making an informed decision about core rotation sites.

Spring Initiation Dinner

The 2005 spring initiation dinner welcomed 18 new members to the Sigma Sigma Phi

Fraternity. With the help of a pharmaceutical company, we had a wonderful dinner at the Weston Country Club. Events from last year were revisited and the plans for the future were declared. We look forward to the new members that will be initiated into Sigma Sigma Phi this year.

Fundraising

We plan to sell NSUCOM Nalgene Water Bottles again this year around the holidays.