One Year of Pre-Health Shadowing

Pre-Health Shadowing was officially launched on September 16, 2020, during the height of the ongoing global pandemic, to members of Delta Epsilon Mu, a pre-health co-ed fraternity. The first four days prior to the launch consisted of setting up the website where only ten speakers were scheduled for virtual shadowing sessions. During this time, more connections were being established and Pre-Health Shadowing was becoming a non-profit organization. Over the course of the first month of Pre-HealthShadowing being launched as a student-led organization, over 500 emails were sent out to various schools such as UCLA, UCSD, and UCMerced to advertise the organization.

When asking Nina Bouzamondo-Bernstein, the CEO of Pre-HealthShadowing, about her favorite part of the process, she described it as “the opportunity to talk to so many people, who all share common goals of pursuing health care as their future profession, in addition to meeting different professionals who we greatly appreciate participating with Pre-HealthShadowing.” As of December 2021, there are currently 41,539 students who are registered with Pre-Health Shadowing to participate in its opportunities. Furthermore, there are 3,367 student volunteers, who work hard to make all the opportunities possible for students trying to gain experience in a health-related field. Pre-HealthShadowing is not limited to just virtual shadowing; mentorships and research programs are also available for students.

The growth of Pre-Health Shadowing is an ongoing process that will continue in many different ways. It also has its challenges, with being a student-led group, it can be difficult to navigate around different schedules and goals. Many students are also involved with extracurricular activities on top of their school schedules. However, everyone is working hard to make the organization possible, and we couldn’t accomplish all that has been done without the student volunteers and professionals who volunteer their time.

Overall, Pre-Health Shadowing has come a long way since its creation about a year ago. Pre-Health Shadowing is always open to more people and it’s completely free to join the community. Additional details can be found at the website: https://www.prehealthshadowing.com. Hope to see you join!