When the Gateway Curriculum launches in July 2020, our students will have the opportunity to participate in an exciting new career development curriculum—Explore. Explore will provide our students with longitudinal and immersive experiences in four academic career pathways: research, education, advocacy and innovation.
Building on the outstanding opportunities that already exist for our students, the Explore curriculum will provide enhanced structure and support for career development as an academic physician. Students will have the opportunity to participate in longitudinal programming throughout the 4-year curriculum. This will include exposure to physician role models and mentors, core training in the knowledge and skills necessary for the respective career pathway, and experiential learning. We are actively working to create 3-week immersive experiences in Phase 1 so students can explore their interests early in training. In Phase 2, students will have the ability to defer up to 16 weeks of clerkships in order to have a second early immersive experience. Finally, Phase 3 will bring significant opportunity to explore career interests through electives, extended study, and yearlong and dual degree programs. Current programs include the MD/PhD, MSCI, MPHS, MPH and yearlong research programs. Over the coming months we will be collaborating with our colleagues on the Danforth campus to explore other dual degree and certificate options in engineering, business, informatics, and education. These programs will take time to build and implement. Our goal is to give our students the opportunity to explore their interests and support their ability to find their true calling and niche in academic medicine.
The foundation for the Explore Curriculum was developed by several of our current students. My gratitude to Averey Strong, Rebecca Brenner, Curtis Austin, Maren Loe, Owen Hamilton, Jessica Hao, Linda Jiang and Jane Wang for their creativity, collaboration and commitment to this project. In January, the design of the Explore Curriculum will be handed over to faculty leads. The Office of Medical Student Research, led by Dr. Koong-Nah Chung, will be the home of Explore. Dr. Chung has successfully led student research programming for many years. Under her leadership and mentorship, more than 98% of our students have had the opportunity to explore opportunities in research and global health. Her contributions and support have helped us to become a premier training environment for academic physicians. The Explore Curriculum will build on that impressive legacy and further support the vision of the Gateway Curriculum:
Advancing human health by training physicians to create the future of medicine, science and society