Tyra Lee: Student Researcher and Dedicated Advocate in the Field of Medicine

Tell us more about your advocacy work within medicine.

I got involved with advocacy in my very first semester of college. I went to a virtual conference for The American Medical Student Association, and they did an Advocacy Day where they set up meetings with legislators to talk about bills that were impacting either patients, future physicians, or physicians themselves.  I got convinced by one of my professors that I had to do this. So I did. It was such an impactful experience for me because it was a way that before even having a white coat, my voice was heard, and I was standing up for communities that I hadn’t even really stepped foot in yet. So it was really amazing to be in that space and be able to talk about these things with people of power.

For  people who are not familiar with AMSA, tell us more about what they do.

So AMSA is the American Medical Student Association, and they have a pre-med caucus. So the undergraduate caucus that I’m a part of does everything related to medical education and advocacy. And we as a collective body can do things in a variety of different advocacy topics and write letters to the editors and magazines. 

How has getting involved in networking and professional opportunities influenced your outlook on medicine and your interest in the field?

It’s completely shaped it, I’d say. I came into these kinds of things wanting to do medicine because I was in love with an athlete’s anatomy. And getting involved in these kinds of organizations, networking, and diving deep, I was able to see how multifaceted medicine is and how you can be a researcher, advocate, and educator in so many different ways. And it opened up this whole new world of medicine for me and I realized how I would love to be able to touch each and every one of those kinds of topics and be involved in them throughout my career. So it really did just give me more of a passion for the field, and it also just really showed me that this is a place I think I could do well in and enjoy what I was doing.

What inspired you to begin exploring the barriers to access medical school?

I am a South African immigrant. I moved to the country to pursue medicine. Little did I know what that actually looked like with the four years pre-med, four years med school residency, and so forth. And when I first got here, I started at a community college level because I financially couldn’t afford anything else. And I was really on those pursuits of ”what do I need to do?” And I found myself within the first couple of weeks just overwhelmed and flooded with negative stereotypes about how someone like me was never going to be able to go from an immigrant, low-income community college student to med school. And I had advisors telling me to look into nursing and all the different other health aspects. And I was so frustrated so I turned to everything online to try and figure it out.

And that frustrated me even more. And I feel like at that stage I was ready to quit and then a couple weeks later I was like  “Nope, I’m going to do this and I’m going to make it better for everyone else around me”. So I was in a leadership position on my campus within an AMSA chapter. And I kind of just wanted to start getting information and seeing where I would be able to implement programs or resources that were going to help bridge the gaps for our knowledge. So that is kind of what initially made me want to look into what kind of barriers there were for people on my campus.

Tell us more about your current research projects and what it is like to work with students all across the US.

The research project started as a survey at my community college to evaluate how much students understood about the medical school application and how many resources they actually had for it. And we got really disgusting numbers that showed our students were significantly lacking, not only in information, but also in experiences that are “recommended” for the medical school application. And we took that and we turned it into a national survey with the American Medical Student Association that looked at pre-meds across the country. There is no actual literature that I could find out there that was specific, about implementations or programs schools could add. So I felt like this was something that students could take upon themselves and start to try and figure out how to help at their local colleges.

So we sent out a survey. Each school does it at their own research center, so they take control of the project and they can utilize the survey in any way that they feel free to. They get the survey, send it out, assess what kind of access barriers there are, and then implement a diversity initiative that’s going to help their students with something that they were struggling with. So it’s basically just looking at where the issues are so that we can work on implementing programs at the undergraduate level that bridge that gap, especially for underrepresented students, because we are seeing that it’s an issue across all populations of pre-meds.

We are across eight different institutions, six different states, and I’ve really just found it so empowering to work with other students. I think the students that we have found to work with are truly passionate about a change in the physician pipeline. They are truly passionate about diversifying medicine, about equal opportunity, about collaboration and not competition. So it’s been really empowering because I feel like I’ve also made some lifelong friends. We speak and do stuff outside of the research project, but it also has just given me hope that I am going to go into medical school and into residency with people who are passionate about helping other people around them. You often hear that pre-meds are very competitive, but I’ve found a handful of them that truly want to advance everyone around them. And I think that, to me, has made this an even better journey.

We’re continuing for another two years. We have sent out the new survey and we’re looking for schools in that regard. So if there’s any students who have a passion for diversity or are looking at these kinds of things, there’s always a way that they can reach out and possibly do it on their campus as well. So we’re just going to continue to expand, grow, and invite as many students in as possible.

What does it take to be a student leader within medicine?

I think for me, in terms of my perspective, it was passion. It was about being willing to put in the hard work when you might not see the reward. It was about starting and implementing things that were going to be for students that come after you. So I think for me, it was passion and selflessness in that regard. There was a lot of resilience because you are going to be told “no” by a lot of different people and schools and stuff like that. So you have to have that resilience. I think if you’re passionate, willing to learn, willing to listen, and willing to lead, you can be successful as a student leader.

What advice would you give to students who are planning to apply to medical school and are maybe overwhelmed or confused with the process?

I think that the first thing I would say is that you’re not alone. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that everyone else is doing fine and is going to be way more successful than you. Everyone is worried. Everyone has doubts. I think the second thing is to ask for help. Find mentors, find people, go to advisors, even if they don’t give you the best advice. Just keep getting perspectives, because someone one day might tell you something that you didn’t know about the medical school application at all, and it could completely change some of your direction. So talk to professors, talk to advisors, other pre-meds, make sure you’re looking at credible sources.

Where to find Tyra to learn more

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Watch the full interview on Youtube.