Our preliminary data indicate that students do not have the desired opportunities to interact with students outside their immediate class. In addition, students have expressed a desire for more opportunities to interact with faculty beyond the formal classroom. Thus each medical student has been assigned to one of four learning communities, each comprised of equal numbers of M1s, M2s, M3s, and M4s. Students remain in their designated communities for their entire medical school experience. Interested faculty members have also been assigned to a community.
Students initiate and provide leadership for many community activities.
Each pod contains small group rooms, examination rooms, study and social areas, and office space to support the activities of the community. While the current curriculum remains basically the same, formal and informal learning experiences, service learning projects, and professional skills and leadership development activities have begun to take place within the communities. Program themes include wellness promotion, preparation for current medical practice, community service, team building, and cultural competency. In addition, small group, mentoring, and tutoring relationships transpire and develop both intentionally and serendipitously within the communities. Communities allow students to connect - with other medical students at all stages of the curriculum, with faculty, with student affairs staff, and with individuals in the broader, local community.