SNMA officers address the group, with vice president Sydney Johnson at the microphone, at another successful Taste of Culture event. Also pictured, from left, are: Michelle Amankwah, fundraising chair; Kwaku Bonsu, MAPS liaison; Malaika de Weever, secretary; Ifeoma Ezeilo, president; Katherine Foote, treasurer; and Sydney Pigott, social media chair.
Jacobs School Students Celebrate Multicultural Roots
Published December 20, 2022
By Ellen Goldbaum
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences medical students celebrated their multicultural backgrounds at the annual Taste of Culture event Dec. 2 at the Jacobs School building.
Event Features Food, Fashion, Artwork
The local chapter of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) — the nation’s oldest and largest organization focused on the needs of medical students of color — sponsored the event.
Students celebrated their backgrounds through a dinner, a fashion show and presentations of artwork.
Some of the foods featured included jollof rice from Nigeria; pad kee mao, also known as drunken noodles, from Thailand; chicken tikka masala from India; plantains from Portugal; and macaroni and cheese, representing American soul food.
Fashions from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tibet, India, Colombia and Honduras were shown. Visual artwork and performances were also shown, some of which were integrated into the fashion show.
SNMA-Sponsored Event Shows School’s Diversity
Taste of Culture was started in the Jacobs School over a decade ago as a celebration of food from the different cultures represented by the medical student body. It has since evolved to include a celebration of art and fashion.
“It’s no secret that medicine is a field that is grossly lacking in diversity, and one of the missions of the SNMA is to increase representation of underrepresented minority students in medicine,” said Sydney Johnson, SNMA vice president.
“In line with that, we wanted to celebrate the diversity that the Jacobs School has been able to create and is working to grow. The SNMA hopes that everyone who attended was able to appreciate the significance of not only having a diverse student body but also celebrating it,” Johnson adds. “We have a long way to go in terms of making the physician population reflect the community it serves, but we also want to make sure we appreciate how far we have come.”
After the fashion show, the models took part in a bhangra — a folk dance originating in the Punjab region of Pakistan and India — taught by second-year medical student and master of ceremonies Arsh Issany, with music by first-year medical student Shyon Small, also known as DJ Ruption.