Speakers at GlobeMed’s eighth annual Benefit Dinner last Friday brought attention to how the average college student can create change through awareness.
“[Students need to] see they have a role,” senior and GlobeMed co-president Payal Morari said. She hopes that through events like these, students will be brought together to “change the world.”
The UR GlobeMed club, with its partner organization Safeguarding of Vulnerable Adults, works to improve health and social justice conditions in the Dhenkanal community in Odisha, India. The members take a broad perspective on health education and awareness, working together to form bonds in the Rochester community.
This perspective was reflected by the two main keynote speakers, Matthew Gearinger and Ngozi Udo, who spoke of issues that occur not only in the Rochester community but worldwide.
Gearinger, a doctor who helps blind children regain their eyesight, used his presentation to explain how any student could change the world by bringing awareness to a cause.
“The first step to change is you,” he said.
The second speaker, Udo, brought awareness to the issue of black maternal mortality. Her research incorporated the history of structural racism and its relation with doctor care to shed light on the reasons for black maternal mortality.
“We must arm ourselves with history,” Udo said. “Injustice never took a day off.”
UR club co-sponsors ASL, Xclusive, and S.A.L.S.E.R.O.S. also showed support for GlobeMed’s cause by entertaining with pop songs and dances.
The dinner allowed GlobeMed to celebrate its work with the UR community.
First-year Chastity Chavez was satisfied with the evening. “I enjoyed the overall atmosphere of having people who weren’t even from GlobeMed come and learn more about our mission.”
