M-Home Learning Community
A group of people playing a yard game outside

At Home from the Start

Medical school is a time of tremendous growth and challenges unique to every individual. We want you to feel at home here and thrive. 

Creating a Culture of Authenticity

M-Home exists to build strong personal and professional support around students. Medical school is a time of tremendous growth, new experiences and challenges unique to every individual. We want you to feel at home here and thrive. That’s why we'll welcome you into M-Home from the start.

On your first day of Launch, you will discover which House you are in, and immediately begin interacting with fellow House members. Within your House, you join a smaller Doctoring group with 10-12 students that is led by two faculty instructors. One of these faculty members will become your personal leadership coach.

Your M-Home experience embraces community building, coaching, well-being, creating a culture of authenticity and peer mentorship and development. 

M-Home Olympics at Michigan Medical School: Learn how experts define health sources in a journal of the National Academy of Medicine.

Community Building

When you arrive on campus, you inherit an instant community through M-Home. You will be welcomed by students from other classes, and they will be your teammates in house competitions like the M-Home Olympics and our “Med School versus Law School” trivia nights. Your eMpower peers and mentors will guide you through paths they have already walked. They will share their successes and challenges with you.

Learn more about our M-Home Peer Support Groups.

In addition to the peers and Doctoring faculty coaches within your House, you have access to a Student Services counselor, a comprehensive collection of insider info through the Med Students Gateway sponsored by the Office of Medical Student Education, and many resources available through our Office for Health Equity and Inclusion.

Why does M-Home exist? Because in medical school you will feel stronger than you have ever felt. And more vulnerable. We need people who will see us through the tough stuff (because, tomorrow, we might be the one helping them through the tough stuff)."

Jennifer Imsande, PhD
M-Home Program Director
Encouraging Engagement
Students in garden working together

M-Home encourages student engagement and leadership at all levels. We encourage students to propose ideas for new activities and initiatives that will help foster authentic connections, community and well-being. We’ll coach and support you if you want to launch those ideas.

M-Home activities present students with opportunities to form networks and connect authentically with peers and faculty at various stages of their learning journeys. These activities range from the fun and social, like M-Home Olympics, CAMP, and board game nights, to the challenging and thought-provoking, such as our Healers' Art elective course, our writing workshops, and panels featuring physicians talking about recovery from substance use disorder. These events bring our community together to erode silos, build trust and learn from each other.

M-Home Representatives 

M-Home relies on student leadership to bring our community building efforts to life. M-Home representatives are part of the UMMS Student Council and encourage programming for their peers. They operate as part of a high-level team with faculty and staff to build authentic connections and relationships within the medical school experience.

Well-Being
M Home Therapaws Students smiling with dog.

M-Home supports well-being for all students. Wellbeing, or the art of “being well,” means different things for different students. Some students want to participate in weekly studio yoga classes with peers. Others prefer outdoor bonding experiences, such as hiking with peers. Others want to develop their mindfulness and meditation techniques or experiencing joy and comraderie through bowling nights, painting classes, baking nights, or through the holiday parties we throw. We help you manage and relieve stress in healthy and productive ways, build resilience with the fluctuations of life during med school, make thoughtful choices to reduce harm, and promote meaning and purpose every day.

Points of Blue Anita Valanju Shelgikar
Points of Blue
Anita Valanju Shelgikar, MD, MHPE: Training physicians of the future
Anita Valanju Shelgikar (she/her/hers), MD, MHPE, is a professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School and the director of the sleep medicine fellowship at Michigan Medicine.
Dr. Paul Fine stands with four members of his hospital team.
Points of Blue
Paul Fine, MD: Healing through music and medicine
Paul Fine, MD, is a clinical associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School. He earned his medical degree and completed his residency in internal medicine at Michigan Medicine. Here, he shares how he loves to help others, his passion for piano (make sure to check out his music!) and his advice for students.
A group of people smiling for the camera
Points of Blue
Jasmyne Jackson, MD, MBA: Connecting Innovation and Equity
Jasmyne Jackson, MD, MBA, is a Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow at Brown University and an Emergency Medicine Healthcare Leadership and Administration Fellow at Brown Emergency Medicine.