Medical students who need a little extra help getting through their courses have a brand new resource — the Office of Academic Enhancement (OAE).

Services
The OAE opened in May to begin organizing student services for the 2007-2008 school year. Services to be offered include:
• Peer tutoring for students who are having academic difficulties
• A Web site with study skill aids
• Coaching for second-year medical students for the U.S. Medical Licensure Exam (USMLE), Step 1
• A prematriculation program for entering medical students
• A tutoring elective for second- and fourth-year medical students

David Henzi, Ed.D., is director of the new Office of Academic Enhancement.
Printer Friendly Format

All tutoring will be offered in a group setting and will be provided free to medical students, said David Henzi, Ed.D., director of the OAE.

Seeking student mentors
In order to offer these services, the OAE is looking for second- and fourth-year medical students to serve as tutors. “It’s been said that you learn best when you teach the material,” Dr. Henzi said. “These students basically will be paid for extra studying in the form of presenting the materials to their classmates,” he said.

Funded by School of Medicine
The OAE is an outgrowth of the Medical Hispanic Center of Excellence (MHCOE), which has offered tutoring and other services to medical students for more than 15 years. Unfortunately, cuts in federal funding are expected to close the center. “The School of Medicine saw the value of the programs and decided to expand them and pick up the funding,” Dr. Henzi said. The office is now under Associate Dean for Student Affairs Lee Jones, M.D.

The MHCOE, which had been administered through the dean’s office in the School of Medicine, has been recognized for its outstanding programs with continuous federal funding since 1991, said MHCOE Director Martha Medrano, M.D., M.P.H. “The center has embraced and modeled the philosophy of diversity by not only serving Hispanic students, but all medical students,” she said.

“As a Hispanic-serving institution and a Hispanic-serving health professions school that was chartered as the medical school of South Texas, it is unfortunate that our center will not continue,” she said. “We at the center have been actively transitioning programs to other parts of the School of Medicine and to the Health Science Center as a whole, such as the Office of Academic Enhancement, to continue our programs of excellence that serve our students and faculty.”

Dr. Jones added, “The ultimate goal of this office is to maximize the potential of all medical students. This will enable our school to graduate the best-prepared physicians possible. Dr. Henzi is a very valuable asset to this endeavor and ensures that this will be successful.”

How to become involved in the program
Students who want to take advantage of the program as mentors or mentees can contact Dr. Henzi at 210-567-0638.