The STRIVE Initiative: A Resident-Led Mentorship Framework for Underrepresented Minority Medical Students

Underrepresented minority (URM) trainees face unique challenges in academic medicine. Near-peer mentorship is an under-described method to support URM trainees.

We created and evaluated the Student to Resident Institutional Vehicle for Excellence (STRIVE) program in a large urban medical school and associated residency programs.

All URM residents were invited to participate in the STRIVE mentorship program consisting of 3 pillars of programming: medical school curriculum review sessions, panel discussions, and social events for medical students. The program was evaluated through participation rates and a 7-item survey delivered in May 2019 after 3 years of implementation.

The STRIVE initiative conducted 25 events. Thirty-five of 151 eligible (23%) URM residents participated as mentors for an average of 50 of 110 eligible (45%) URM medical students annually. Resident mentors participated for an average of 3 to 4 hours each year. Twenty of 32 eligible resident mentors (63%) completed the survey. Ninety-five percent (19 of 20) of survey respondents agreed that STRIVE made them a better mentor; 90% (18 of 20) reported that they would have appreciated an equivalent program during their medical school training; and 75% (15 of 20) agreed that the program helped them address the challenges of underrepresentation in medicine.

Over a 3-year period, STRIVE required a modest amount of resident time and was valued by the URM residents and medical students who participated in the program.