This past spring, Quarter at Aggie Square  wrapped up the inaugural cohort of Critical Medical Humanities (previously called Advancing Healthcare Equity), an experience aimed at reshaping how students understand and approach health care. Blending academic rigor with community engagement and hands-on learning, Critical Medical Humanities offers a reimagined approach to preparing students for careers in health care, one that focuses on empathy, equity and reflection as essential components of care.

“Pre-med students are eager to be good providers and serve their patients,” said Meaghan O’Keefe, associate professor of religious studies and the faculty lead of Critical Medical Humanities. “But they don’t always understand the larger forces that shape healthcare. I wanted to help undergrads develop informed empathy, to meet health challenges with culturally sensitive approaches.”

That vision is the heart of Critical Medical Humanities. The five-course minor, which is completed in a single quarter, introduces students to the social, political and historical contexts of healthcare delivery, equipping them not only to understand the inequities that pervade modern medicine, but to advocate for change within it.

Learning to listen: lessons from the classroom

For Khushi Jain, a genetics and genomics major who aspires to be a physician one day, the subject matter offered a new way of thinking, one that bridged her STEM education with a deeper understanding of people.

“The medical humanities minor connects culture, history and background to medicine,” she said. “Often, health care providers aren’t trained to account for the cultural context of their patients, which causes mistrust and inadequate care.”

The seminar-style structure fosters exactly that kind of critical inquiry. Students from disciplines as diverse as religious studies, economics, and biology come together in a cohort-based model, opening themselves up and engaging in deep discussions about systemic injustice, bioethics, cultural competency, and more.

“The students built strong relationships; we even have inside jokes now,” said Jain. “Coming from large lecture halls, this was a reminder of the importance of community.”

David Wei, a managerial economics major, described the experience as engaging and personal. “This program is quite unique because of its small class size.  When you’re in a class of only 15 to 20 students, you really get to hear people’s stories and journeys,” he said. “Professor O’Keefe shared her own path, and it was inspiring. The discussions were open, honest and deeply human.”

O’Keefe sees this intimacy as core to the program’s impact. “Because of the nature of the cohort and the small class sizes, students get to forge stronger connections with people,” she said. “That’s a real gift.”

Grounding medicine in community with interpersonal experiences

What makes Quarter at Aggie Square and the Critical Medical Humanities experience truly distinctive is its integration of community-based interactions and hands-on learning. Students apply classroom lessons through internships with UC Davis, UC Davis Health and local organizations, examining social determinants of health not from a distance, but up close and on the ground.

Melisa Hernandez, a religious studies major on the pre-physician assistant track, interned with a fentanyl prevention initiative at the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research on the Sacramento campus. There, she interviewed overdose prevention organizations and learned firsthand how society’s perceptions about addiction and policy intersect.

“It removed the stigma,” she said. “It helped me see people not as ‘addicts’ but as individuals seeking help. It also gave me a deeper respect for the providers and their dedication.”

Wei’s internship at the UC Davis Health Center for Clinical Research offered a look at the complexities of clinical trials and the factors that motivate participants. One patient, Wei recalled, returned for nearly 30 weeks straight. “He said he was doing it for his kids. That really stuck with me. It’s inspiring to see people fight for change despite their own personal struggles.”

In addition to internships, Critical Medical Humanities also took students on field trips to help connect lessons on policy and medicine to their implications in the local community. Jain described a walking tour of Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood as a pivotal moment in her understanding of public health and trust.

“We learned how [health] organizations can be viewed as hostile unless they approach communities with humility,” she explained. “It reminded us that engagement must be rooted in listening.”

O’Keefe emphasized that this connection to the communities around the Sacramento campus is intentional and essential.

“Being at Aggie Square, we’re much more integrated into the community,” she said. “We toured Oak Park and met with local leaders like Pastor Mark Meeks and Michael Benjamin. They helped students understand how the history of redlining and environmental issues have contributed to health disparities. That kind of engagement makes a big difference.”

Rethinking what it means to care

Across their experiences, students echoed a common theme: healthcare is far more complex than textbooks suggest. It’s shaped by systemic inequities, fraught ethical questions, and cultural misunderstandings that science alone can’t solve.

“Healthcare isn’t black and white,” said Wei. “It’s mostly shades of gray, full of conflicting interests and ethical dilemmas.”

“We learned that the average doctor only spends about 15 minutes with a patient,” Jain added. “That’s not enough to understand someone’s story. It made me rethink how I want to practice medicine: with empathy, time and respect.”

For Hernandez, who also volunteers at a local clinic, the program altered how she sees her function as a medical interpreter. “I realized my role goes beyond translation. I’m helping to improve health outcomes. Language barriers can be huge, so I try to be intentional in how I support both patients and doctors.”

These moments of realization are exactly what O’Keefe hoped to foster. “Students actually advocated for making their final presentations more interactive and community-focused,” she said. “They designed brochures and hosted round tables. It was powerful to see them pushing this beyond academics and into something beneficial for the community.”

Graduates of Critical Medical Humanities leave with more than a minor in medical humanities; they carry a transformed understanding of care itself. Where most pre-health tracks emphasize technical expertise, this one offers something rarer: a human-centered lens grounded in empathy, ethics and lived experience.

“Professor O’Keefe says it best,” Wei concluded. “Medicine is science, but it’s also deeply human.”

This insight—that healing starts with understanding—is the program’s heartbeat. And thanks to Professor O’Keefe’s vision and a cohort of students eager to serve, Critical Medical Humanities is helping shape not only better healthcare professionals, but more compassionate people.

Visit the Quarter at Aggie Square website to learn more about Critical Medical Humanities and other learning experiences available to UC Davis undergraduate students.