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Pre-Jays program helps pre-med students get the lowdown on what medical school is like

Program offers premedical students the benefit of having longer-term relationships with medical student ambassadors.

Morgan Bretches, founder of Pre-Jays, visits with Jo Leatherman, fourth-year medical student, on next steps for the new program that aims to connect pre-med students with currect medical students serving as ambassadors at KU School of Medicine-Wichita.

Gaining experience and prepping your resume. Taking the MCAT, Step 1 and Step 2. Just what does the Match involve? How do you handle the stress of it all?

There are many paths to medical school and many hurdles to clear once one is there, but they're not always clear to someone who hasn't been there yet. That's especially true if an aspiring doctor-to-be is a first-generation college student or hasn't known a physician or other provider who can share their experience.

Pre-Jays, a new program at KU School of Medicine-Wichita, seeks to demystify the process by connecting pre-med students with medical students who serve as student ambassadors.

Pre-Jays was initiated early this year by Morgan Bretches, a Wellington native who is the first in her family to earn a bachelor's degree. She's worked in admissions at Wesley Medical Center for a decade and pursued a degree later than many students, earning her bachelor's in public health from Wichita State University in 2020.

Bretches felt fortunate to have gained insight into medical school - from how to be a good candidate to how to prepare for big tests - from Ruben Torrez, M.D., then a student at KU School of Medicine-Wichita and now an emergency medicine resident in North Carolina. Bretches, Torrez and others were part of a multidisciplinary team that competed in Clarion, a case-based competition.

"I would reach out and just have questions about medical school and applying. And Ruben always took time to respond and gave me really good advice," said Bretches, who is studying for the MCAT and preparing applications to research-focused M.D./Ph.D. programs, including the one at KU School of Medicine in Kansas City. "I thought, ‘What if there is a way that other students can have access to medical students?' Because Ruben was such a big help for me."

Bretches also credits two KU School of Medicine-Wichita faculty, Tiffany Schwasinger-Schmidt, M.D., Ph.D., and Shang-You Yang, M.D., Ph.D., as mentors. Early this year, she and Schwasinger-Schmidt co-authored a study, "The State of Obesity in Kansas: A Community Based Approach to Chronic Care Management," in the Kansas Journal of Medicine published by KU Medical Center.

"Morgan is a very motivated, premedical student who just recognized there was something missing in her experience of being able to talk to students regularly. We do open houses and things that are kind of our status quo, but often they see us once and that's it," said Jo Leatherman, a fourth-year medical student and president of the student ambassadors. "She thought, and I agree, it would be beneficial for premedical students to have longer-term relationships with medical students."

Bretches began by reaching out to the Academic & Student Affairs Office, which put her in touch with Leatherman. About 30 pre-med students - all from Wichita State for starters - were matched with student ambassadors after completing a survey assembled by Bretches and Leatherman. It included questions ranging from what kind of medicine they hoped to practice to their favorite music.

The student ambassadors were a natural fit, as they take part in programs for prospective students.

"The ambassadors are really some of the best people to answer their questions, because we get practice doing it already," said Leatherman, who went to medical school after teaching high school. "There's just a lot of mystery around medical school until you're in it."

By design, the mentorships are somewhat informal, with pre-med student and mentor finding a comfortable level. With the program coming into existence amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person meetings could be a bit challenging. A monthly newsletter keeps participants updated and covers such topics as writing a personal statement. The hope is that the program can be expanded to other Wichita-area colleges.

Fourth-year medical student Morgan Weiler, a student ambassador, doesn't come from a medical family and appreciates the value of Pre-Jays.

"When I was going through KU as an undergrad, I was in a bunch of organizations that helped me gather my resume. But there was never a program that helped me answer the questions about actual medical school and what it looks like."

After initial contact by phone, Weiler met in-person but outdoors with the student, a freshman at Wichita State interested in maternal and infant health. They talked for an hour and kept in touch via text and email. They discovered a common interest in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at their schools.

"We talked about the path to medicine, all the routes of volunteering, and shadowing, and grades and just kind of the things on your resume that are important," Weiler said. "But we also talked about having interests outside of medicine and kind of cultivating that. My advice to her was that a lot of people in med school come to realize that they spent so much time studying or volunteering that they didn't cultivate those hobbies."

Bretches sees Pre-Jays as adding to the teaching cycle inherent in medicine.

"When you're a medical student, you're getting mentored by the residents. And when you're a resident, you're getting mentored by attending physicians. So, Pre-Jays is a way to start that very early in their career."

"We really encourage it to be like a mutual mentorship because, as medical students, no matter where we are in our education," Leatherman said, "we should be preparing to teach others and work with others down the line."

To learn more about the Pre-Jays program or to get involved, contact Morgan Bretches at morgan.bretches@gmail.com.


KU School of Medicine-Wichita