The Meharry-Vanderbilt Student Alliance (MVSA) has been in existence since 2003 with approximately 200 active students. The purpose of the MVSA is to encourage students from each campus to meet each other, to identify common interest, to pursue joint projects, to approach community outreach together, to have joint recreational activities, and to help define the process for making the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance beneficial to their educational experience. In addition, the student group serves as the forum for addressing all student matters, announcements, etc. across institutions.

MVSA has an Executive Committee with equal representation from each institution. There are four subcommittees, each with a co-chair from Vanderbilt and Meharry. The subcommittees include:

• Community Outreach
• Communication
• Educational Programming
• Social

In addition, there are co-editors for the student newsletter.

There have been many success stories and much collegiality among the student participants. All medical, dental, and graduate nursing students and graduate research students are welcome. By collaborating with others, a better appreciation for the contribution of all will be gained. In addition to benefiting the community, the students benefit by developing leadership and negotiation skills. By becoming familiar with the Alliance, students feel much more comfortable about opportunities for them on the other campus.

Some of the many MVSA activities include student-driven awareness for healthy living, neighborhood health screenings, talking with middle school children about science and health to inspire an interest in the health sciences, serving as tutors to local elementary and middle schools, developing a multi-campus mentoring program for young children. MVSA has hosted conferences and programs developed by students. Incidentally, there have been very successful social events hosted by each campus.