Lim and Three Med Students Honored by Cincinnati Youth Collaborative

Wan Lim, PhD, associate professor-educator of medical education, has been awarded the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative (CYC) Ambassador Award.  The honor was bestowed at a Jan. 15 awards ceremony.

Lim received the award in recognition of 14 years of passionate service she has provided since the 2001 founding of the University of Cincinnati Med Mentors program, a mentoring program linking College of Medicine students with mentees in the Cincinnati Public Schools. At the present time over 200 medical students are participating in the program.

Mentors are recruited almost exclusively from first- and second-year students in order to provide multiple years of mentorship for area youth.  UC Med Mentors is an affinity group of the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative which trains and matches mentors with mentees. 

CYC also honored three College of Medicine students with "Outstanding Mentor” awards.  The winners were fourth-year medical students, Ellen Diego, Danielle McCarthur and Konstantin Grigoryan.

Diego has been mentoring Kimberly Noguera, now an eighth-grader at Hartwell Elementary School, since November 2011. The two enjoy making dinner, playing games and participating in arts and crafts.

McCarthur is currently mentoring Anaya Carter, a fourth-grader, and the two enjoy baking and following recipes, sometimes adding their own creative twist.

Grigoryan has been a mentor to Kristopher McClure and occasionally to Kristopher’s brother since October 2011. The trio like to canoe, ice skate, cook and hike.

CYC was founded 30 years ago to reduce high dropout rates in Cincinnati and is the result of collaboration between the business community and public schools. More than 160,000 disadvantaged students have been offered a pathway to success through CYC.