UMMA

by Nikki Noe

Courtesy of UMMA

UMMA Clinic recently partnered with the Ansar Service Partnership (ASP), to
provide USC Students with an opportunity to gain experience working at a clinic.
ASP’s program with UMMA Clinic is volunteer-oriented.

UMMA Clinic was started in 1996 by a group of Muslim UCLA medical students
in response to a need for low-cost health services prevalent in South Los Angeles.
Since then, they have welcomed many UCLA students as volunteers at the clinic.

Ansar Service Partnership teamed up with UMMA Clinic this past fall to provide
USC students, especially those who are pre-medical, an opportunity to engage in
hands-on volunteer work at a clinic. [what do students do when they volunteer?]

Since last October, ASP has been connecting students to the clinic’s volunteer
program. Students who engage in this program are not required to be a part of
ASP, but will be informed of the organization’s local service activities, which they
are welcome join.

Sana Shuja, a sophomore pre-medical student majoring in the Social Sciences with
an emphasis in Psychology and minoring in Human Rights, is the Health Chair for
the UMMA volunteer program. She is responsible for meeting with students who
are interested in the program and giving them more information regarding their
immediate next steps as well as what the different levels of the volunteer program
are.

“I hope that students who do engage in the program find that with little effort, they
are able to make a palpable positive change in their community,” said Shuja.

She also hopes that pre-health students who volunteer at the clinic increase their
interest and passion for their intended career path through direct interaction with
patients.

“I also hope that students who may not have previously done so begin to consider
the more humanitarian, and often less financially rewarding, path of health
services,” said Shuja. Furthermore, she hopes that this program “paints the road
ahead, which can often seem long and difficult to pre-health undergrads, as at least
a bit less bleak.”

To find out more about the UMMA volunteer program, Ansar Service Partnership,

or to get involved, students can contact ASP at ansarsp@usc.edu.