{"id":72029,"date":"2013-01-31T13:45:10","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T18:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=72029"},"modified":"2013-02-05T09:00:16","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T14:00:16","slug":"medical-student-on-uconn-board-of-trustees-first-time-in-school-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/01\/medical-student-on-uconn-board-of-trustees-first-time-in-school-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical Student on UConn Board of Trustees First Time in School History"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Larry<\/a>
Rose Barham greeting UConn Board of Trustees Chair Larry McHugh during the demolition of the lower research campus buildings in Oct. 2012. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rose Barham joined the women\u2019s ice hockey team in college though she had never played the sport before. \u201cI love learning new things,\u201d says Barham, who ran for the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees with the same desire to learn. In August, she became the first student in the School of Medicine\u2019s 45-year history to win a seat on the board.<\/p>\n

A second-year medical student, Rose is a full-voting member and serves on the Academic Affairs Committee and the Committee on Student Life. \u201cI thought it would be a great opportunity to learn how the University is run, and an opportunity to learn more about what is happening at other campuses, especially with the allied health schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having grown up in Massachusetts, earned her undergraduate degree at Skidmore College in upstate New York, and worked five years in research at Pfizer labs in Groton prior to enrolling in medical school, Barham brings a fresh perspective to her two-year post.<\/p>\n

As a board member, Barham\u2019s responsibilities are varied. She not only attends board meetings and votes on major issues impacting the University, but is also invited to UConn events such as the groundbreaking for The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine,<\/a> on Jan. 17 during her lunch period between classes.<\/p>\n

Barham enthusiastically supports Bioscience Connecticut<\/a> and the Board\u2019s broad support of biomedical engineering and bioscience research. She is also interested in seeing allied health programs become more integrated with academic programs at the Health Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a disadvantage for the medical and dental schools to be separate from nursing, pharmacy, and social work,\u201d she said. But Rose is optimistic and believes there are more opportunities for the students to interact and learn together.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>
Health Center EVP and dean of the School of Medicine Dr. Frank Torti and Rose Barham attend \u00a0the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine groundbreaking ceremony\u00a0on Jan. 17, 2013. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Barham says UConn\u2019s Urban Service Track<\/a>, in which she is a scholar, can serve as a prime example. Each year, up to 10 students from each of the University Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, Pharmacy and Nursing are selected for the four-year program to study and address the health care issues of the state\u2019s inner cities and underserved populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe run through cases, and we have nurses and social workers there. It\u2019s fabulous, but limited to a small number of people,\u201d explains Barham. It also must be taken as extra credit outside the curriculum. But Barham feels it is well worth it and has given her invaluable experience.<\/p>\n

Last year, she provided health education at a Sickle Cell Benefit Walk, and she is currently designing curricula and training classmates to lead health education programs at Halfway Sendaros Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, a community center for middle and high school students in New Britain.<\/p>\n

Barham realizes she represents more than just the Health Center and medical school.<\/p>\n

She holds the sole Board of Trustees seat representing all of UConn\u2019s graduate students. \u201cMy responsibility is to be the voice for all student concerns and interests, not just the Health Center.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the issues for graduate students is that the University, in general, is undergraduate focused,\u201d adds Barham. \u201cGraduate students have different needs. They are older, more independent, have families and jobs. I would like to see more activities on campus that are inclusive of families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gov.<\/a>
Second-year medical student and UConn Board of Trustees member Rose Barham standing next to Gov. Dannel Malloy while listening to UConn President Susan Herbst during an event marking the demolition of the lower research campus buildings on Oct. 17. 2012 (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Board of Trustees convenes approximately every six weeks, and the subcommittees often meet before or after the board meetings. Barham invests additional time preparing for the meetings and making up the classes she misses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot to learn about who makes what kinds of decisions about the hospital and about the Health Center in relation to the University,\u201d Rose says. \u201cIt\u2019s a learning curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Barham is not at the Health Center, she squeezes in gym workouts several days a week, and gardens and cooks with her husband, David Forster, a soil fertility consultant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is important to be involved outside of classes, but you can\u2019t be involved in everything. It\u2019s constant juggling. It\u2019s more than a full-time job, but I\u2019m so glad to serve and provide a voice for the students,\u201d Barham says.<\/p>\n

\n

Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rose Barham says she\u2019s proud to be the voice for the students and represent their interests on the board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":72035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-72029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-02 18:44:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72029"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72365,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72029\/revisions\/72365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/72035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72029"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=72029"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=72029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}