Student Ambassador Program

The Student Ambassador Program at the Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (BU ADRC) was established as a Boston University School of Medicine service-learning program. The program’s objectives are to educate students about Alzheimer’s disease and related cognitive impairments, improve students’ communication skills with older adults and cognitively impaired individuals, educate students about culturally diverse communities, and recruit African Americans into BU ADRC research studies.

Members of the Student Ambassador Program are required to complete specific requirements and are given formal training in the administration and scoring of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment at community events. Successful students receive a commendation letter signed by the ADRC director and the Outreach, Recruitment, and Education Core director, which is placed in their medical school file.

The following paper suggests that the program helped the ADRC recruit more research participants from underrepresented groups and increased the willingness of students to work with patients with dementia.

DeCaro R, et al. Educating students while recruiting underrepresented populations for Alzheimer’s disease research: The Student Ambassador Program. BMC Med Educ. 2022;22(1):707. doi:10.1186/s12909-022-03749-1.

e6ed503b0f6730de4cd42f92f77f837d Educate & Raise Awareness Recruit & Retain Participants recruitment-joinadc@bu.edu Boston University Alzheimer's Disease Research Center 2019-01-10T00:00:00Z Black or African American Cultural Competence Training & Development Underrepresented Research Articles Websites