​On Saturday January 23rd, The Healers of Tomorrow took a campus visit to the University of Washington. Despite the pouring day, the visit was an exciting one where the students discovered the major components of the enormous campus. We started off in the Health Science building where we visited the health professional schools UW offers. This included the UW School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and School of Public Health. We also visited the classrooms that medical and dental students use for their lectures. One of my favorite moments of the tour is when the students saw a picture of the incoming first year medical students and noticed the lack of representation of their ethnic group in the image. I think they understood how much they are needed in whatever profession they choose as their future career. 
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We then explored the main sites of the UW campus. The Suzzalo Library was the students favorite, particularly the Reading Room (aka Harry Potter room). We also checked out the famous UW Quad where the cherry blossoms bloom during Spring and Summer seasons. Our last stop was Odegaard Library where most incoming undergraduate students spend majority of their time researching and studying.

The Healers of Tomorrow are a group of bright and energetic students who are excited to experience the world of UW. The day was filled with so much laughter and walking; I enjoyed getting to know each and every one of the students.   This opportunity personally inspired me and made me reflect on the power of mentorship.

- Amina Sheikh, IHSAN officer and UW undergraduate student

On Saturday January 9, respected community members came to speak with our Healers of Tomorrow about their career paths.  Our youth have been learning about health and healing in a broad sense over the past few months, and are interested in fields as diverse as neurosurgery, fashion, law, and engineering.  Many of our students are undecided about what they would like to do "when they grow up" and have seen this program as a step in towards figuring that out.   

We were fortunate to hear from a diverse array of health professionals including

• Medical Assistants
  
• Dentist
  
• Pharmacist
  
• Registered Nurse
  
• Medical Doctor
  
• Social Worker/ Mental Health Counselor 

Great wisdom was shared during this time!  We got to share the nuts and bolts of what work life balance is like for these different careers, advice on how to pick what college to go to, and what a typical day in the life is for our different careers.  

My favorite moment was when everyone was able to share an example of how they have helped someone.  In dentistry, there is the instant gratification of being able to repair someone's teeth and see a beautiful smile or to resolve pain.  Medical assistants and nurses shared the joy of getting to know patients over time and being able to relate to them using our diverse backgrounds in order to offer culturally competent support.  And our pharmacist shared the importance of being a last line of interaction between the patient and the medical home, an important bridge to health literacy and education for patients.  Most of the health professionals agreed that often the most gratifying part of their job was lending a listening ear to their patients.
And our most important lesson was -- don't give up!  The struggle towards your professional goals can be really challenging, and at times you may doubt yourself.  Ask for help, take care of yourself and keep doing your best and you'll get there!

Thank you so much to our wonderful guests and to our students as always.

In Peace and Health,
Dr. Malik