Building partnerships with local schools.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Service Learning
• Community Engagement

Background:

• Medical schools must equip students for a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world.
• Service learning offers a successful approach for students to learn through community-based activities.
• Sharing program outcomes is crucial for advancing service learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• Evaluate a novel service learning module co-designed by Imperial College London, local schools, and stakeholders.
• Assess the module's impact on medical students' understanding of social accountability and privilege.
• Examine the module's effectiveness in fostering higher education aspirations among secondary school pupils.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative evaluation of the module's first iteration in 2021.
• Data collected via student reflections (n=20), teacher interviews (n=6), and stakeholder questionnaires (n=6).
• Analysis focused on stakeholder perspectives regarding module outcomes.

Main Results:

• Students gained insights into societal roles, inclusivity, power, and privilege.
• Teachers reported students served as inspiring role models, boosting pupils' higher education aspirations.
• Mutual benefits were observed for both university students and secondary school pupils.

Conclusions:

• The module offers a replicable framework for developing student reflections on their role in a VUCA world.
• Collaborative work with community stakeholders is vital for successful service learning projects.
• This initiative successfully integrated academic learning with community priorities and social responsibility.