Social Committee Chair Melanie Vugelman
Email: [email protected]
“Hello everyone! My name is Melanie Vugelman and I am this year’s Social Committee Chair. I am originally from Staten Island, NY and graduated from Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Science with a BS in Microbiology. I love being active within school activities and enjoy creating and planning events from scratch for the students to enjoy. My responsibility is to celebrate our hard work and accomplishments with as extravagant of a celebration as possible. I am most excited to see the students have fun at the events that the committee and I planned and to celebrate our accomplishments together. I hope you all enjoy what’s to come from the social committee and hope to see you at our events!”
About the Committee:
The Social Committee is the group responsible for planning and organizing events for the entire touro community to enjoy. Our annual event events include the formal, Halloween Spooktacular, and other community related events.
Public relations committee chair
hunter parker
Email: [email protected]
"Hello everyone, my name is Hunter! The public relations committee serves to keep the Touro community and beyond informed via social media posts, monthly newsletters, website updates, and more! Having fun and getting more people to know what we are all about here at Touro is the goal!"
T.O.U.C.H. Committee Chair Hesan Waly
Email: [email protected]
"Hi Everyone! Congrats on starting your amazing journey to become a doctor! The T.O.U.C.H. committee's role will be to help you get connected to our Middletown community by organizing service activities and ensuring that you are recognized for your commitment to service. In Osteopathic schools, service hours are called T.O.U.C.H. hours. Check out our SGA website to learn more!"
Global health and community Committee chair
sarah grega
Email: [email protected]
“Hi, everyone! My name is Sarah Grega and I am a second-year here at TouroCOM. I went to college at St. John’s University in Queens and got my masters degree here at Touro. In my free time, I love spending time with my friends and learning about their diverse backgrounds and cultures to keep expanding my knowledge about different countries around the world! In my role as the Global Health Committee Head, I am most excited to work with the rest of the committee to plan and execute the health fair in the spring semester to serve our diverse community in Middletown!”
student ambassadors Committee chair
petal samrow
Email: [email protected]
"Hi everyone, My name is Petal! I grew up in Rye Brook, NY but I am from New Delhi, India. I graduated from Boston University in 2021 with a double major in Neuroscience and Psychology. Before beginning at Touro I worked as a Medical Assistant in Boston and then moved to Virginia to work as a medical scribe. In my free time, I love running, playing tennis, and eating yummy food. As head of the Student Ambassador Committee, I am most excited about meeting new students, sharing my experiences at Touro, and helping however I can in their journey to medical school".
About the Committee:
Remember when you were interviewing and had wonderful students providing tours and amazing advice? This committee provides the opportunity for you to show this year’s interviewees how much of a family we are at Touro! Ambassadors are responsible for joining (minimum of 2 per semester) weekly interview sessions to host a student-led Q and A, as well as assist in shadowing requests from incoming/prospective students. Student Ambassadors also have the opportunity to help host the Annual TouroCom Open House by offering tours of the facilities and leading different stations throughout the building. As a member of this committee you are in the unique position to help guide new students in making one of the most important decisions in their academic and professional careers!
CONTINUING PHYSICAL EDUCATION Committee chair
milan patel
Email: mpatel47@student.touro.edu
“Hi all! My name is Milan Patel and I am a second-year student at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Middletown, New York. I was born and raised nearby in Newburgh, New York and I went to school at Binghamton University before coming to medical school. Growing up, I played a lot of baseball and enjoy watching baseball during the season. During my undergraduate years, I enjoyed playing intramural softball, dodgeball, and volleyball and was able to even win a few championships with my team. I enjoy going to the gym after a long day of classes and unwinding! I am excited to share my passion for sports and exercise with everyone through the Continuing Physical Education Committee!"
About the Committee:
The Continuing Physical Education Committee is committed to providing students with resources and events to maintain their physical health and wellness during the school year. We enable students with similar interests to engage with each other by creating GroupMe chats for different sports, games, and fitness activities. We host our annual Field Day in the early Fall where students and faculty come together to play large team games and lawn games at a nearby park. Additionally, we plan to host a Super Bowl watch party during the Spring semester on-campus for students to come and watch together. We are open to adding new events and ideas to our current list and look forward to meeting you!”
WELLNESS Committee chair Ruoxi zhang
Email: [email protected]
"My name is Ruoxi (Rosy) and it is with gratitude and excitement that I accept my position as wellness chair for the year 2024-2025! My background is in mental health counseling with over 8 years of experience, working with a variety of demographics. Wellness, to me, is not just a dimension of daily life that we attend to when time allows. Rather, it is a baseline practice that creates the foundation of every decision that we make. In this coming school year, I envisage deepening our conversations and practices of what wellness means and looks like; that it could and will look different from person to person - even for the same person, depending on the day, week, month. Creating spaces of safety, acceptance and reassurance for my fellow Touro members is what drives my intentions for the wellness committee. I am excited to be a part of a committee and look forward to working with my team to incorporate more arts, movement, and insightful discussions on wellness. Looking forward to the new term and being well, together.”
About the Committee:
“We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.”
― William James
Managing the stressors of academic life is ongoing. Regularly reducing stress levels is necessary to ensure mental and emotional longevity and sustainability, especially in a rigorous field like medicine. What does wellness mean to you? What does it look like in practice? How do you keep up with your practices of wellness? These are just some questions to encourage reflection about implementing wellness into our daily lives. The commitment to being well extends beyond an event or a committee. We are all responsible for taking care of ourselves, and when we can, take care of each other. Each person may practice wellness differently; what works for one person may not work for another. Moreover, our needs are subject to change from day-to-day, week-to-week, year-to-year. On behalf of the Wellness Committee, I encourage you to think about and practice self-listening and self-compassion. Balance this with the various events on campus to foster community and prosocial engagements. This way, when we take care of ourselves, we become better at taking care of others.
Diversity committee chair Cristian ramirez Rodriguez
Email: [email protected]
“I am committed to caring for communities that are unserved and underrepresented in our healthcare system. Since arriving at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine – Middletown (TouroCOM), I have participated in volunteer and building community in the rural Middletown, NY region. As the Committee Head of the TouroCOM Diversity Committee, my team and I have organized an annual Diversity Fashion Show, to highlight and celebrate diversity on and off-campus.”
About the Committee:
Diversity Committee is committed to supporting current and future underserved, underrepresented, and minority medical students, and increasing the number of clinically excellent, culturally competent, and socially conscious physicians. They host events to highlight the diversity on our campus and the surrounding Middletown community. This year, they will host their 3rd Annual Diversity Fashion Show at the Paramount Theater in Middletown.
CLINICAL ROTATIONS Committee
Louis Borsellino
Email: [email protected]
“My hometown is Armonk, NY and I graduated from Stony Brook University in 2020. In the three years that followed, I spent time working as an EKG/Telemetry technician on a critical care floor while earning a masters degree at Rowan Virtua SOM before coming to Touro. In my free time, I love to surf whenever I have time to be near the beach, and I take part in long-distance swimming events every summer. I am excited to get a feel for life outside the classroom. Third year is going to be a huge change for all of us, and I hope that I can help make the transition a little easier.”
About the Committee:
The clinical rotations committee works together to ensure rising OMS-II students have the proper information before choosing their rotation sites in the spring. The main event the group organizes is the clinical rotations panel where OMS-III students from each clinical site share their experiences and students have the opportunity to ask them questions. Outside of that, the clinical rotations committee is the main point of contact to address students' concerns, and if needed, committee members will contact the school's rotation coordinators or the clinical sites directly for clarification.