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Thank you for your interest in working with the DGSOM Asylum Clinic! We are a fast growing, student-run clinic, where you will have opportunities for leadership experience and make important contributions in asylum work. We invest heavily in our student leaders and hope to support you in any of the areas you are interested in. Details on each leadership role are below.
Leadership Structure
Open positions:
Events Director (1)
Plan the annual asylum training
Organize the monthly board meeting and bimonthly clinic outreach events
Plan the annual fundraising with the USC Keck Human Rights Group
Treasurer (1)
Manage everything $$ related
Balance the account
Keep track of the clinic funding
Oversee all purchases
Research Director (1-2)
Develop research projects for posters and publications
Attend the annual free clinic poster fair at DGSOM
Connect with PHR for potential research projects
Design the post and pre-training evaluations for research purposes
Collect finished affidavits and design protocols to extract meaningful information for research use
Clinic Operation Directors (2):
(Completion of an asylum training is required for this position)
Note: This position will be given to experienced Case Managers and Case Schedulers. Please apply to be a Case Manager or Case Scheduler first if you are interested in this position. Application to this position will be open to active Case manager and Case Scheduler in February.
Improve the scheduling process and the continuity of care protocol
Coordinate and manage the clinic space
Arrange parking reimbursements
Develop fund for patient urgent medical needs
Lead a team of case managers and case schedulers
The case managers and case schedulers play a vital role in clinical operations and are in direct contact with our clients and network. Student leaders in other leadership positions are encouraged to take on these roles concurrently. These positions will be open again after the Sept 22nd training to all the student attendees. Case managers and case schedulers are eligible to apply for Clinic Chief or Clinic Operations Directors roles in the next application cycle.
Case Scheduler(5-6): coordinate with the clinicians, the lawyers and the clients to decide evaluation date, time and location. Keep track of the case completion and collect affidavits.
Case Manager(5-6): manage the medical care aspect of the client, refer them to free clinics, follow up with them on their medical needs after evaluations are completed
Public Relations Director (1)
Maintain website
Write regular blog posts on current asylum events
Post public announcements
Manage listserv
Outreach and manage local business partnerships
Represent DGSOM Asylum Clinic by attending various outreach events
Design logo and other marketing tools for the clinic
Advocacy Director (1-2)
Connect with other student clinics and PHR to collaborate on advocacy efforts
Draft petition letters (past example, the letter to condemn Jeff Session's denial of domestic violence as grounds for asylum)
Organize rallies (current example, rallies for Rohingya genocide)
Connect with AMA, AMSA and other students orgs for advocacy collaborations
Work with the Events Director to organize outreach film screening and special topic talks
Submit and present at the LA Global Health Conference and other conferences
To apply for the leadership position OR/AND sign up to volunteers for the Sept 22nd asylum training event, please submit your application HERE. The deadline to apply is September 4th. If you have any questions please email dgsomasylumclinic@gmail.com.
If you were not able to make our intro session on 8/28, please find some FAQs below:
1. What is the DGSOM Asylum Clinic?
We are a group of students and clinicians working to provide forensic medical evaluations that provide expert evidence to support individual’s claims of asylum. An individual may claim legal asylum if they have a credible fear of harm if they were to return to their home country. We are a Physicians for Human Rights affiliated clinic, which means we have the backing of one of the largest and most well-respected human rights organizations in the world. We also work in areas of research, policy and advocacy and are currently developing continuity of care programs for our clients.
2. What is the student’s role?
For each evaluation, a medical student will be paired with a clinician and accompany them to conduct the evaluation. Evaluations are scheduled at times that are mutually agreed upon by the clinician, client, and student involved on the case. Evaluations last on average of two to three hours and can be located at our designated clinical space in Westwood after 5PM on weekdays or anytime on weekends (usually 9AM-12PM on Saturday), or another location based on client preference. Some evaluations also will take place in detention facilities, such as Adelanto.
During the evaluation, the student volunteer will work with the clinician to illicit a full history, take notes, and document photographic evidence. Following the evaluation, the student will draft an affidavit to be reviewed by the clinician. A well-written affidavit draft is the most important aspect of the student's involvement in the evaluation process, as it makes the clinician's role much easier and provides important experience to students in synthesizing client history and medical/physical exam findings. The final affidavit is submitted in court as evidence to support the client's case.
The training on 9/22 will include tips on how to write an affidavit that best serves each client's case.
3. How can I perform cases and how many cases can I expect to perform in a year?
As we are just getting started, it is hard to predict what our clinic capacity will be. Moving forward, our case load will be dependent on the number of cases we receive and the number of volunteers that sign up. We anticipate student volunteers being able to do about 1-3 cases in the next year. However, we want to be fully transparent and make it clear that we cannot make any guarantees about the specific number of cases you will be able to perform. We’re learning as we go and hope that you can both bear with us as we do so and be a part of this unique opportunity to get involved with something just as it is starting out!
4. What's the time commitment like?
The clinic operation depends heavily on its leaders. For operations-related roles, such as Clinic Chief and Clinic Operations Director, the time commitment is about 5-10 hours a week (Clinic Chief may be higher.) Case Manager and Case Scheduler roles can take 3-8 hours (spread out over one to two weeks) to schedule each case. Other roles may require a 1-5 hour commitment per week, depending on active projects. These time commitments are generally flexible and can be done on your own schedule.
5. How do I get trained?
We are hosting a full day training on September 22, 2018 from 8:30AM – 4PM. All of the info is available on our Eventbrite registration.
It is a requirement that you attend this training if you are interested in volunteering with the clinic. There may be another training opportunity in the future if you are unable to make this one. The training is currently at capacity, but if you have not already signed up, please join the wait list (instruction on the eventbrite link above). If you are a DGSOM student, please reach out to us at dgsom.asylum.clinic@gmail.com as you might be qualified for our reserved tickets sponsored by UCLA.
If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at dgsomasylumclinic@gmail.com!
Thank you for your interest!
DGSOM Asylum Clinic