As Department of Allied Health Sciences Allied Health Ambassadors, students from our division are bringing awareness to the academic challenges, financial strains, and interpersonal conflicts that are often faced by minority students pursuing professional careers.
At a DAHS annual event, titled Difference Matters, first-year student Shamni Uthayasoorian spoke on diversity and inclusion issues, the stressors that are commonly faced by international students, and the importance of cultural competence among health care providers.
Shamni often works alongside Mariel L. Marshall, to attend the Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Team meetings to provide student perspectives on inclusion and diversity in the DAHS.
Marshall currently serves as the rising president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) at UNC-Chapel Hill. The UNC-CH chapter of the NAACP seeks to promote political activism, advance social and economic justice, and to foster a sense of cultural pride and campus ownership amongst minority students on the campus and in surrounding communities. Part of her work includes ensuring that UNC-CH websites are diversity inclusive, creating a safe and accessible space for all forms of diversity, even beyond ethnicity and race.