Student Spotlight: Jade & Jazmyn Ayers (Class of 2021)
Class of 2021: Twins combine passions for literature, science in emerging area of narrative medicine
Identical twins Jade and Jazmyn Ayers have immersed themselves in literature and personal narratives for years. Not only has it led each to major in English, it also has spurred them to come up with a creative way to pair storytelling with another of their passions: medicine.
The sisters, who are also majoring in medicine, health and society, are applying to medical school with a focus in the burgeoning interdisciplinary study of narrative medicine, which employs creative skills from the humanities to enable caregivers to help patients voice their experiences with health issues more clearly.
“Our work through our English major is helping build critical thinking and analysis as well as empathy and care for people and their stories,” Jazmyn said. “I think a lot of times the doctor-patient relationship can get lost in translation in medical terms, with so much focus on science that you kind of forget about people.”