Grateful Tiger Conversation: Joshua Griner

Joshua Griner
Singing Doctors of Springfield Scholarship
Fourth-year student
Seneca, Missouri

Q: How has this scholarship assisted in your education?

A: My career goals include pursuing further training in emergency medicine with the hopes of working in a community/academic hybrid system or possibly pursuing a fellowship in medical education or advocacy/health equity. This scholarship has released some of the burden of financing my medical education for the past four years.

Q: What are your extracurricular activities and hobbies?

A: My activities include class president, co-founder of the Diversity and Inclusion Student Curriculum Committee, Student Ambassadors, Pre-Medical Scholars student mentor, former Patient Referrals Chair for the MedZou Community Health Clinic, volunteering with the Gender-Affirming Care Clinic and working as a Preventative Health team member.

Q: What else can you tell us about yourself?

A: One of the most memorable experiences of the past year has been co-founding the Diversity and Inclusion Student Curriculum Committee. After the death of George Floyd (and the deaths of countless other Black individuals as a result of systemic racism), it became obvious that there was a need to include education about systemic racism and social determinants of health in our curriculum. We are working to find ways in which to incorporate such training, since these are issues that affect the patients that we treat. In addition, we're working on other campaigns to increase education and improve the environment for other marginalized groups, including the LGBT community. We recently started a pronoun campaign to educate about the importance of (and increase the personal use of) pronouns in order to create a gender-inclusive environment.

Q: What message would you like to send to your scholarship sponsor?

I want to express how thankful I am for receiving this award for the past four years. As a first-generation college student who would not have been able to afford undergraduate school without scholarships, I understand just how much every penny of a scholarship can do for a person. I hope to one day be able to provide a similar scholarship fund to assist other students in obtaining a medical education.