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The inaugural class of medical students at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University will spend July 19 talking with and working alongside Asbury Park West Side residents to better understand the community, according to a written news statement from Interfaith Neighbors spokeswoman Nancy Shields.

The Community Immersion Day will be an opportunity for the medical students to meet with adults and children at three sites — the Boys and Girls Club of Monmouth County on Monroe Avenue, Coastal Habitat for Humanity on Memorial Drive, and Interfaith Neighbors Kula Café and Kula Urban Farm at Springwood and Atkins avenues.

“The planned Asbury Park immersion activities on July 19 th are just one of the many programs we have developed to carry out the medical school’s mission to build community partnerships and to graduate doctors that seek to understand the many influences and drivers of health,” Dr. Carmela Rocchetti, the Director of Human Dimension, said in the written statement. “We want our students to fully understand that health and well-being happen in the community where people live and work and play, not within the four walls of a healthcare office or hospital.”

The medical school’s mission includes ‘producing exceptional physicians who truly understand what drives health and disease, integrate technology and systems into their thinking and practice, and are able to improve the health outcomes of all populations.’

As part of their focus, students are required to participate in the Human Dimension Course, which pairs them families in order to build relationships over a three year period.

“Through this immersion in the community…we’re hopeful a relationship develops between many folks from the West Side of Asbury Park and these medical students…might enable the incoming medical students to have an ongoing [and] direct dialogue and understanding of the residents’ health-care needs and the specific challenges they face in finding care for themselves and their families,” Interfaith Neighbors’ Associate Executive Director Walter ‘Chip’ Craig said. “The immersion is an early introduction to the community many of the medical students will ultimately serve if they become affiliated with Jersey Shore University Medical Center.”

The newly opened Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall, is the only private medical school in New Jersey. The school is located on the former Hoffmann La Roche site that straddles Clifton and Nutley. July 9th marked the first day of class for the inaugural class of 60 students.

For more information, contact the School via HDSOM@shu.edu or Nancy Shields at nshields5@comcast.net.

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