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Title: Jess Dawson Interview, December 2, 2021
Date: December 2, 2021
Creator: Jess Dawson; Maddie Tinsley
Description: This interview was conducted on December 2, 2021 using the Their Story platform. The interview was intended to get Jess Dawson’s perspective on the topic of medical school applications and how the criteria of those applications affect medical students from minority communities. In this interview, Dawson discusses her perspective on the judgment of medical school applications and describes how most of the emphasis is placed on applicant’s work and volunteer experiences. Dawson describes how her personal work and research experiences prior to medical school set her application apart but also how the pressure to get so many experiences was ultimately damaging to her mental health. In an academic context, Dawson discusses her experiences taking the MCAT, the impact these tests have on medical students, and how recent changes to the STEP One exam have altered the medical school experience. Dawson describes how the importance of previous experience often disadvantages applicants from minority communities who don't have as many connections. She also described the privilege experienced by medical students who are children of doctors and thus have more connections and less barriers. She also discusses how she feels medical schools favor individuals from economically privileged backgrounds. She concludes the interview by describing her experience working to get some new questions on her medical school application and her perspective on how medical schools are pursuing a limited form of diversity.
Subject: medical students; medical school; public health; Indian-American; immigrant; first-generation immigrant; University of Washington Medical School; Seattle, WA; medical school application; MCAT; Step 1 Exam; mental health; privilege; diversity
Country: United States
URI/handle: http://hdl.handle.net/1961/humanitiestruck:3666
Rights statement: This interview’s legal title, rights of publicity, and all literary rights were donated at no cost to American University.

Title: Naoko Wowsugi Interview, May 18, 2020
Date: May 18, 2020
Creator: Naoko Wowsugi
Description: Naoko Wowsugi, a Humanities Truck fellow and studio art professor at American University, discusses how COVID has impacted her as an immigrant, an artist, and an educator. She shares how she experienced COVID a bit earlier than those in the US, since she was in Japan with family during the initial outbreak in Wuhan. She was worried the virus would impact her travel plans, but ultimately made it back to the US before travel bans went into place. Naoko talks about how COVID has cancelled or postponed the projects she was working on as an artist, including her project with the Humanities Truck as a fellow. She shares how she took in-person meetings with people for granted, and has had to adjust to replicating those interactions online. Naoko finds hope in the number of people who have come forward to help their communities and put their lives at risk to save others. She hopes we will reflect on issues of gentrification and displacement as a result of the virus, and learn about what is really essential to our lives and how those essential things should be shared equally. This video is part of the Humanities Truck's From Me To You: A Covid-19 Oral History Project. https://humanitiestruck.com/frommetoyou/
Subject: Washington, DC; American University; Humanities Truck; professor; artist; immigrant; Japan; COVID; COVID-19; coronavirus; pandemic; family; travel; community; technology; volunteer; essential workers; gentrification; displacement; equality
Country: United States
URI/handle: http://hdl.handle.net/1961/humanitiestruck:2149
Rights statement: Copyright for this object is held by American University and does not preclude any use the co-interviewee(s) may want to make of the information in the recordings themselves. This object is made available through the American University Digital Research Archive for research and educational purposes. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the object beyond the bounds of Fair Use must be obtained from the American University Library -- Archives and Special Collections.