Inter-Society Multicultural Fellows Committee

The Inter-Society Multicultural Fellows Committee is a group of faculty and student representatives from all academic societies charged with facilitating diversity training and awareness in our medical community. The Committee itself represents diverse ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds. It is the committee's belief that we all see ourselves as members of a broad spectrum of different identities, such as ethnicity, race, class, sexual orientation, gender, age, ability, religion, and nationality, and that in each of these identities we may experience ourselves in certain contexts as being part of a minority or a majority group. Membership in some of these groups may result in the experience of discrimination and the denial of society's benefits. The Committee invites all individuals to join in a discussion of their identity as members of different groups.

The Committee believes that the best possible medical community is one in which the maximum heterogeneity is found. We believe that the best research and medical care occurs in a context where differences are highly valued; that "hybrid vigor" is relevant and fundamental to the structure and optimum functioning of human groups. We do not advocate a homogenization of our differences, however. Our natural tendency to cluster into our group identities is also essential to the nurturing of each of our unique cultures. Multiculturalism is the search for an appreciation of the richness gained by the co-existence of our differences, as well as an acknowledgment of our similarities. We feel that these values are fundamental to the development of competent physicians.