GSA COMMITTEES

The GSA has several committees set up to help the executive board with the tasks of running the GSA and to address matters important to students.

Please check out our committees if you are interested in joining or if you just want some more information on what we are working on.

  • Diversity and Inclusion

    Mission Statement: Through advocacy, education and outreach, we foster a community in which all graduate students at the School of Medicine can pursue academic and professional excellence.

    Vision Statement: As a leading advocate for inclusive excellence at the School of Medicine, we will advocate on behalf of all graduate students to ensure a diverse and equitable institution.

    Areas of Concern:

    • Ensuring diversity in admissions and recruitment
    • Promoting financial aid & funding policies that help offset socioeconomics status
    • Disseminating resources to create culturally competent mentorship
    • Recognizing the contributions of underrepresented minorities at SOM
    • Rallying diverse student group leaders to co-host events
    • Partnering with SOM Diversity Council to conduct town halls and awareness raising events to promote diversity and inclusion

    Contact Us: Are you interested in joining the committee or have a question? Contact the current VP of Diversity and Inclusion

  • Events Committee

    The Events Committee works to increase the social opportunities available to students in the SOM. The goal of these events is to promote meeting and engaging with people and ideas from other programs in the School of Medicine and schools in Johns Hopkins University. Additionally, these events help relieve some of the stress of the graduate school life and allow a convenient time to hang out with your friends on campus. We work hard to publicize these events and to keep them free or substantially below cost for our fellow students.

    Contact Us: If you are interested in getting involved with the Events Committee, please contact the current VP of Events.

  • Finance Committee

    Core Value: The committee's core value is to facilitate your graduate experience at Johns Hopkins by providing financial resources within the university and beyond that compliment your goals. 

    About Us: The Finance Committee is composed of the GSA President, President-elect, Vice-President for Finance, and students from the different graduate programs of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. This committee drafts and maintains the GSA budget around programs and activities that seek to improve the training experience at the School of Medicine. The fiduciary duty of the committee to the student body currently involves finance-related seminars, income tax talks, GSA-funding of student groups and GSA Travel Awards (4 cycles every year). 

    Participating in the committee offers the valuable opportunity to develop skills in peer evaluation since the Travel Award process is akin to the evaluation of grants in study sections. Criteria used for ranking include merit, financial need, applicant's year in school, PI reference letter, etc. After each committee member reviews and scores the applications, the committee meets in person to discuss, build a consensus, and select the winners for the GSA Travel Awards. Serving on the committee takes about 10 hours per award cycle.

    Contact Us: If you are interested in getting involved with the Finance Committee, please contact the current VP of Finance.

  • The Peer Collective

    The Peer Collective Family System: 
    The Peer Collective has developed a Family System (based on the Human Genetics Program) designed to provide graduate students with a support network outside of their individual cohorts and programs. Made up of students across year and program, you have the chance to meet new students and support one another, meeting at intervals throughout the year that work for you!

    The Format: Each family will be a mix of students from different years and different programs. The goal is to create an additional support system where students can discuss common hardships faced in graduate school, learn from each other, go to events together, and celebrate each other's successes. At least one senior student in each family will serve as the lead member of the family to help facilitate meetings based on the family members' needs. Those who wish to be lead family members will participate in a short orientation session prior to the first family meeting to ensure that family goals and expectations are relatively standardized. Additionally, these families are designed to be longitudinal, so existing families will build with the enrollment of each incoming class. One-on-one peer mentoring will be built into this system in two ways for those who wish to utilize it:

    1. Book a meeting with a mentor: choose a mentor to meet with based on the specific situation you are experiencing and on which mentor has experience with something similar. For this, students can volunteer to be peer mentors on specific topics i.e. switching labs, troubles with your PI etc. and they will be available for students to contact and meet with at their convenience. These students will go through a peer mentoring training (available to all) and will be made available for students to contact, across all families.
    2. Paired Mentoring: this will be within families and will consist of two family members being paired together in order to check-in with each other or meet at a frequency you both agree on.

    Contact Us: If you are interested in getting involved with the Peer Collective, please contact thepeercollective@gmail.com or the current VP of Events.

    Follow us on our Socials: 
    Instagram: @thepeercollective
    Twitter: @TPCHopkins
    Facebook: ThePeerCollective

  • The Graduate Coating Committee

    About Us: 
    The Graduate Coating Committee is responsible for organizing the annual Graduate Coating Ceremony that honors PhD candidates who have passed their qualifying exams, transitioning from a PhD student to a PhD candidate. Similar to the White Coat Ceremony held for medical students, students receive a personalized embroidered white lab coat during the ceremony. The committee organizes every detail of the event, appoints the keynote speaker, and leads the reciting of the Graduate Student Oath. In addition to event planning, the committee develops a program for the event that explains the history of the white coat, lists past Nobel laureates, and contains the Graduate Student Oath. The committee meets early spring through September, when the event is held, and is an excellent opportunity to fine tune leadership and management skills, and have fun executing an event for fellow students to enjoy and remember during this important milestone in their graduate career!

    Contact Us: If you are interested in getting involved with the Graduate Coating Committee or would like more information about the ceremony , please contact hopcoat@gmail.com or the current GSA President.

In addition, there are SOM committees to which the GSA appoints interested students.

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Created by: Juliane Liberto. Page last updated: 11/22