Angela Peterman Mihalic1
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/ijms.2015.188
Volume 3, Number 1: 72-72
Received 09 03 2015: Accepted 09 03 2015
To the Editor,
It is with great pride that I write this Letter to the Editor on behalf of Ms. Shelly Mingqian Xie, our second-year medical student at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, whose work has been featured this year by your journal.
Shelly is a unique individual who has an extraordinary gift for the arts in all forms, along with a deep understanding of the human condition and how disease impacts individuals, families, and society at large. She has the ability to combine her artistic gifts with her love of science to make a powerful and significant impact on health.
Coming to the U.S. at the age of 12, it did not take long for Shelly to excel academically and discover her gifts for drawing and painting. While serving as a hospital volunteer during high school, she began a program painting portraits of patients during emotionally difficult times, such as a mother holding a stillborn baby or a dying young man. Through these experiences and the conversations she had with patients as she drew their portraits, Shelly developed a greater understanding of the impact of disease, illness, loss and death; the importance of communication, empathy and compassion; and the resilience of the human spirit despite devastating circumstances. This first important step of combining her art with science planted the seed that led to her pursuit of medicine as a future physician.
After researching Schistosomiasis during her undergraduate years at Stanford, she had another opportunity to combine art, the humanities, and science. Her new understanding of the devastating global impact of this preventable and treatable disease inspired her to self-learn a new 3D art media – sand art – to tell the story of families impacted by Schistosomiasis, and later Chagas and hookworm disease.
It did not take long for national and international organizations to appreciate the powerful impact this art form, combined with storytelling through live or recorded demonstrations, could have on neglected tropical diseases. Even during her medical school coursework here at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Shelly has presented her work at national and international conferences to promote education, public health interventions, and treatment to improve the health of families impacted by these diseases. Very few medical students have had such a worldwide impact on health and health promotion at such an early stage in their careers.
After having the great pleasure of getting to know her well as a person, it is clear that there are few students as humble, truly empathetic, and sincere as Shelly Xie. Her life experiences, appreciation for diverse cultures, experiences getting to know hundreds of patients and their struggles, and incredible natural gifts in the visual arts and creative writing, along with the passion to serve and improve the health of others, provide her an incredibly unique opportunity to make a significant impact. We could not be prouder as an institution of her work, her gifts, and the caring, compassionate future physician she is becoming. It is hard to predict where these talents will take her as she matures in her medical education, but we are all incredibly excited to support her endeavors and celebrate the impact she will have on improving lives in our global community.
The Author has no funding, financial relationships or conflicts of interest to disclose.
Write the manuscript, Approval of the final version: APM.
None.
Angela Peterman Mihalic, 1 Associate Dean for Student Affairs. Professor of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
About the Author: Angela Peterman Mihalic, M.D. is Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
Angela.Mihalic@utsouthwestern.edu
Cite as: Mihalic AP. Grains of Sand and an Artist's Hands. Int J Med Students. 2014 Nov-2015 Mar;3(1):72.
Copyright © 2015 Angela Peterman Mihalic
International Journal of Medical Students, VOLUME 3, NUMBER 1, March 2015