The HUB – What’s It All About? A real student space on campus

By Katya Adachi
Contributing Writer

Born and bred in the Bay Area, I knew coming back home I could feel connected. When I found out about UCSF (for real, a Med School in SF?! I mean where could be better?) I knew it was the place for me. I saw a bunch of other students I felt I could relate to and they were talking about things I was into too (health disparities, social justice, community service, and real life type stuff). I was set.

First year started and I was amped, eager to do the whole I’m-gonna-be-a-doctor thing. It didn’t take long, however, and I found myself overwhelmed, frustrated and isolated. Too good to be true, as they always say. It’s true folks is here…but where they at? I was missing the sense of connection that I just knew would be here. I needed community on campus.

I guess I had been spoiled. As an undergrad at UCLA, the Community Programs Office (CPO) – which housed all the student-run outreach, retention and community service projects that served underserved communities throughout Los Angeles – was a central, integral part of my experience not only as an individual student, but also as a student leader, as a student of color, as a member of community. Through our common intention and similar experiences, the students who worked there shared a sense of family that made a piece of the ginormous campus feel like home. The CPO itself was a physical manifestation of the connection students were able to share. It provided a central location where all the students and organizations could work, study, meet, interact or even just sit and eat lunch and b.s. about their B.S. Such an environment enabled a great deal of meaningful work to get done, nurtured supportive relations among students, engaged campus leadership and administration with students in a mutually beneficial way, created connection to the community at large, provided unique opportunities to apply and expand upon classroom learning, and made the whole experience more fun and interesting. So like I said, I was spoiled.

I knew that UCSF had the potential to sustain a truly supportive, diverse environment, but it needed some serious work. The key thing I found to be missing was a central locale students could identify with as a space they felt was their own and could use to support their hard work. We needed a place to build community. The topic came up in a discussion at an Underrepresented in Medicine (UIM) Dinner when many students were voicing similar experiences of isolation and the desire to actually experience the benefits of the diversity that is so celebrated at UCSF.

In classic grassroots fashion, we decided to take action using whatever resources we had. A number of student organizations collaborated and decided to claim room S-182 for every Monday afternoon for the rest of the year. Far from the fully staffed and supplied Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs that we envisioned, but it was something and it was ours – bootleg poster, scavenged free snacks, and all.

The HUB was born. It’s called the HUB for two reasons. The first is the metaphor of a hub: the center of a wheel, connecting all the necessary parts so that they can work together in order to accomplish a common goal. HUB also stands for Health Unity Board, the organization itself. In both meanings is found the common notion of bringing together students and organization in order to create a place of community that supports our own health as students, our development as future leaders and providers of health care, and the health of our communities. Unity in health.
This is the official mission statement of the HUB:

“The mission of the HUB is to foster collaboration between inter-professional groups that promote cultural awareness and diversity. By creating a physical space where students can gather and exchange ideas, we aim to build a diverse community with the end goals of 1) increasing the recruitment and retention of under-represented and underserved groups in health care and 2) establishing an Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs at UCSF.”

We also have a website, www.thehubucsf.webs.com/Index.html, a Facebook, and a Google group, groups.google.com/thehubucsf .

We meet, we plan, we strategize, we study, we eat snacks, we b.s., we collaborate, we work against health disparities, we bbq, we HUB. It’s a work in progress, including exciting meetings and collaboration with supportive administration and faculty supporting our efforts to get a true Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs on campus. Most importantly it’s a place of community and it’s a Real Student Space.

Katya Adachi is a third-year medical student, a member of the Native American Health Alliance and the founder of The Hub.