by Jillian Knight

This year, the Association for American Medical Colleges held a video contest in which a Montclair State University student won.

Alex McClain, a sophomore majoring in Molecular Biology, was chosen along with nine other undergraduate students as a winner and received financial assistance from the Association to help cover medical school expenses.

Sophomore Alex McClain won a video contest sponsored by The Association for American Medical Colleges. Photo taken by Jillian Knight.

This is the second time the contest was held, and participants were required to submit a two-minute video explaining how they would increase diversity in medicine. After all the videos were submitted to the required YouTube channel, the Association of American Medical Colleges chose ten winners; Alex was one of them.

Alex entered the contest to express to the community how much he wants to increase diversity in medicine. “As future doctors, we need to understand that the world is getting more and more culturally diverse as we speak,” he said.

He also believes that doctors will start to encounter patients from many different parts of the world that will speak different languages. They will be expected to be treated with the best possible health care.

So in entering the contest, he was able to express how important it is that as a whole, we are culturally aware of the differences and are able to embrace them.

Alex’s video explains what diversity in medicine is to him and how to embrace the matter.

“[Being a doctor] should be about treating my patients to the best of my ability. By combining my knowledge of science and my love for medicine, [I want] to provide healing hands for all those who are in need of my help,” he said.

While making the video, many thoughts ran through his head such as, how grateful he is to be an individual who comes from a diverse background and how being bilingual has really inspired him.

This, especially, has given him the opportunity to be able to translate for doctors, nurses and patients working in the medical field.

Having no experience working with media, Alex was able to put together the winning video.

“The message that I’m trying to get across is that, no matter who you are, or where you come from, quality healthcare should be available for all,” McClain said.

He also went on to say the most important thing to him was his dream of becoming a doctor, and emphasized that, regardless of the amount of money or his title, he will make his number one priority his patients.

“I plan this fall semester to take American Sign Language to help bride the gap between the communication levels at my local hospital.”