USA Medical Students Cook for Families at Ronald McDonald House

From left: Gabby Hood, GHHS member; Gretchen Vandiver, GHHS member; Olivia Butters, GHHS member; Karen Braswell, chapter advisor; Rebekah Frazier, GHHS member; Lindsey Stewart, GHHS member; and Patty Wang, GHHS member.

Members of the Class of 2016 Gold Humanism in Medicine Honor Society (GHHS) at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine recently cooked dinner for the guests of the Ronald McDonald house.

The members felt that giving back to the Ronald McDonald house would be a great service project for their honor society.

There were six GHHS members who participated in preparing a meal for the families at the Ronald McDonald house. Of those six students was fourth-year medical student Gretchen Vandiver.

Vandiver is the social coordinator for GHHS and believes that participating in volunteer opportunities is a great study break and enables the members to serve others in the Mobile community.

Vandiver is planning for a career in pediatrics and said that “it was wonderful to see the safe and welcoming environment that the Ronald McDonald house provides to the families of the pediatric patients.”

“Our experience at the Ronald McDonald house was absolutely wonderful,” Vandiver added. “We were able to provide dinner to several families and they were all extremely appreciative of a warm meal.”

The mission of GHHS is to recognize individuals who are exemplars of humanistic patient care and who can serve as role models, mentors and leaders in medicine. Every year, 10 senior medical students, three residents and one faculty member are selected by their classmates to be named to the USA chapter of the GHHS. The next election for the Class of 2017 will take place in January 2016.