Boonshoft School of Medicine student recognized for culturally responsive care and giving back to the community

Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine student Jasmin Cortney Scott-Hawkins

Jasmin Cortney Scott-Hawkins, a medical student at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, was one of 13 medical students nationwide recognized with the 12th annual Oliver Goldsmith, M.D., Scholarship for the Promotion and Advancement of Culturally Responsive Care.

The award celebrates medical students’ efforts to improve the health care of underserved communities. Each awardee receives a $5,000 scholarship, mentoring from a Kaiser Permanente clinician and a clinical rotation at a Kaiser Permanente facility.

Scott-Hawkins is a student in the Boonshoft School of Medicine Physician Leadership Development Program, a dual-degree program in which medical students can obtain a master’s degree in public health or business administration while pursuing their medical degree over five years. She earned her M.P.H. degree in 2014.

In 2013, Scott-Hawkins and another medical student, Ashleigh Welko, developed Project Parenthood, a grant-funded program that provides parenting skills to young adult parents at an emergency shelter for runaway and homeless youth. The program fosters positive parent-parent and parent-child relationships that will allow them to break the cycle of abuse and grow into psychologically healthy adults. The program also encourages the prevention of teenage parenthood by promoting safe sexual practices.

Because of her continued involvement with the program, Scott-Hawkins has become very interested in promoting mental wellness among teen parents.

“The privilege to work with these individuals underscores the core of culturally responsive care, engaging with the community you are serving,” said Scott-Hawkins, who also serves on the board of directors of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) as the SNMA National Publications Committee co-chair and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the SNMA.

She will complete a four-week, in-patient psychiatry rotation at a Kaiser Permanente facility in Fontana, California. She will graduate in May 2016 with her M.D. degree and and plans to pursue a residency in child and adolescent psychiatry.