NSU MD Students Present at Gold Humanism Summit

On Sept. 20, 2025, six students from NSU’s Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine had the opportunity to present their work at the 2025 Gold Humanism Summit in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Gold Humanism Summit is hosted yearly by the Gold Foundation and Gold Humanism Honor Society, providing health care workers a space to share their efforts in the area of humanistic care. And NSU MD students Cristina Benites, Makenna Bowman, Jeams Richard-Costa, Iman Fakhoury and Matthew Houser did just that, with support from NSU MD graduate Samuel Angel — now an M1 at the University of Florida — and faculty advisor Vanessa Johnson, Ph.D.

HELPWISE Communities (Healthcare Educators Leading Prevention, Wellness and Intervention while Supporting and Empowering Communities) is a student-founded community health education initiative. It is funded by the “Quality of Life” grant with the goal of reducing health inequities by providing our communities with access to health education. This initiative provides an opportunity for medical students to do what they do best: teach each other and the community, while providing the community with access to free information and resources through programs like STOP THE BLEED, 2 Step CPR, Women’s Health Education and Health Screening information.

The students of HELPWISE Communities shared this initiative and preliminary data on the effectiveness of this program at the Gold Humanism Summit in hopes that students around the country may replicate the program in their area and improve the lives of communities across the country.

Photo1: NSU MD HELPWISE Team Pictured Left to Right- Matthew Houser (M2), Iman Fakhoury (M3), Cristina Benites (M4), Makenna Bowman (M4), Jeams Richard-Costa (M3) Photo2: Cristina Benites, M4, Founder of HELPWISE Communities – with poster presented at the 2025 GHHS Summit