12 p.m.

VCU School of Medicine invites the SOM community to the 25th Annual Faculty Excellence Awards Program and Lunch, held in-person on the MCV Campus (James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Medical Education Center, Learning Theater 3-200, 1201 E. Marshall St.) and virtually via livestream at the following URL. This program honors outstanding faculty in the areas of teaching, humanism in medicine, professional achievement of women in medicine, clinical excellence, and leadership in graduate medical education.

For more information, contact Jody Hedstrom at jody.hedstrom@vcuhealth.org or (804) 828-6591 or visit https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86295682206?pwd=VlJyWGd0UnZxQjNzSGdDdU1UYm5Idz09.

2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Come to the Compass to have your blood pressure measured by the Cardio-Renal Physiology Lab. Information will be available on how a healthy lifestyle can benefit blood pressure.

For more information, contact Natalie Bohmke at bohmkenj@vcu.edu.

6 p.m.

Interested in traveling abroad while earning shadowing and volunteer hours? Come to the first general body meeting of VAW (Volunteers Around the World) Global Health Alliances. Students in the pre-health tracks will have the opportunity to learn about summer internships, which provide the opportunity to work side-by-side with doctors, pharmacists, dentists or veterinarians to learn about disease diagnosis and patient care in a global context. The meeting will be held in Virginia Rooms A and B, University Student Commons, 907 Floyd Ave.

For more information, contact Hridya Pillai at vawatvcu@gmail.com or (240) 660-8579.

Thursday, Sep. 21, 2023 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Pups on the Plaza will be taking place at the James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Medical Education Center, 1201 E. Marshall St. Pups on the Plaza is a therapy dog event in which a rotating cast of Dogs on Call therapy dogs will be on site, ready to meet and greet passersby. Show your support for Dogs on Call teams by purchasing a $5 lunch (hot dog, chips and a drink) or a Dogs on Call T-shirt for $10. In the event of rain, everything will move indoors to the McGlothlin lobby.

For more information, contact Center for Human-Animal Interaction at CHAI@VCUHealth.org or (804) 628-2532 or visit https://chai.vcu.edu/.

Thursday, Sep. 21, 2023 at 11 a.m.

Join the university-wide Möbius pilot. The pilot will be open to all faculty, staff and students and is scheduled to end June 2024. Möbius, by DigitalEd, is a cloud-based learning platform designed to create and deploy STEM course materials for all modalities. Register to attend a virtual demo at the following URL. This pilot is sponsored by VCU Academic Technologies.

For more information, contact Jamillah Martin at jpmartin@vcu.edu or visit https://go.vcu.edu/mobius.

Thursday, Sep. 21, 2023 from 12:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.

Join VCU's Office of Multicultural Student Affairs in welcoming Ambassador Sékou Berthé and Griot Cheick Hamala Diabaté. OMSA will be catering West African cuisine with live West African music and performances, short presentations and an opportunity to interact with French faculty and representatives of the Global Education Office. The event will be at SHIFT Retail Lab, 1235 W. Broad St. RSVP at the following URL.

For more information, contact Amala Thomas at thomasac4@vcu.edu or visit https://cglink.me/2dV/r1929664.

Thursday, Sep. 21, 2023 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

A mixer for Latine faculty, staff and students at VCU will be held in the Richmond Salons, University Student Commons, 907 Floyd Ave. Come for the community and stay for the elote, wings, chips, churros, agua fresca and more catered by E-Loteria. The event will be hosted by the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, YouFirst, Latinx Student Association and the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science. RSVP at the following URL.

For more information, contact Beck Oh at ohrn@vcu.edu or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1P2-7e2FWGfMpHcRVih4jpRJdq3Ed1P_vHWg-TwzRhvI/edit.

Thursday, Sep. 21, 2023 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

VCU Medical Journal Club will host a pre-health panel via Zoom for students interested in professional health careers. VCU School of Medicine students will be joining to answer questions about the medical school application process and provide tips. The Zoom link is https://vcu.zoom.us/j/81299756416

For more information, contact VCU Medical Journal Club at mjc.vcu@gmail.com or visit https://vcu.campusgroups.com/mjc/home/.

Thursday, Sep. 21, 2023 from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.

VCU's Global Education Office invites students, staff and faculty to Cultural Conversations with participants from Kien Giang University in Vietnam and Shimane University in Japan. This fall series will focus on news and images starting Thursday, Sept. 21. Register at the following URL for one or more sessions of the four-part series which will meet on Thursdays through Oct. 12.

For more information, contact Audrey Emiko Short at aeshort@vcu.edu or visit https://global.vcu.edu/students/community/cultural_conversations/.

Friday, Sep. 22, 2023 from noon to 1 p.m.

Shou-en Lu, Ph.D., Rutgers School of Public Health, will discuss "Multivariate Survival Analysis in Big Data: A Divide-And-Combine Approach" as part of the fall seminar series hosted by VCU Biostatistics. The event will be in Room 305, One Capitol Square, 830 E. Main St.

For more information, contact Dipankar Bandyopadhyay at dbandyop@vcu.edu.

Friday, Sep. 22, 2023 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

New university faculty will be welcomed at a social in Room 1075, College of Health Professions Building, 900 E. Leigh St. The event will be hosted by VCU's Office of the Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, Faculty Affairs. Register at the following URL.

For more information, contact Beth Marcus at bmarcus@vcu.edu or (804) 828-7235 or visit https://forms.gle/YoLu24odLv6r3Use7.

Friday, Sep. 22, 2023 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Test Pattern will return to the ICA Auditorium for a final season, starting with a presentation by performance artist Brontez Purnell and The Brontez Purnell Dance Company, with artist/mycologist Sophia Wang and dancer/astrologer Larry Arrington. The performance will be followed by a conversation and Q&A with the artists moderated by ICA Executive Director Dominic Willsdon. The event will be at VCU's Institute for Contemporary Art at the Markel Center, 601 W. Broad St. Doors will open at 6 p.m. and the performance will begin at 7 p.m. RSVP at the following URL.

For more information, contact Natalie Hale at halene@vcu.edu or visit https://icavcu.org/events/test-pattern-09/.

Monday, Sep. 25, 2023 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

VCU's Humanities Research Center and Office of Health Equity will present a film screening and discussion of "The Lives Between the Lines," a documentary which tells the story behind the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia. A facilitated conversation will follow the screening including a panel including the film's director, Erik Duda, members of the descendants of the enslaved laborers at UVA and members of the representative descendant council on VCU’s East Marshall Street Well Project. The screening will be at the Health Hub at 25th, 1330 N. 25th St., Suite A. Reserve a spot at the following URL.

For more information, contact Rani Sisavath at sisavathr@vcu.edu or visit https://bit.ly/liv0925.

Tuesday, Sep. 26, 2023 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Payments are scheduled to restart in October, with options including a new repayment plan and on-ramps for borrowers still struggling with repayment. Some of these changes have implications for borrowers working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Learn details of PSLF, including qualifying repayment plans and employer certification to remain on track to have your student loans forgiven. This session by VCU HR & VCU Financial Wellness. Register for the Zoom link at Talent@VCU or at https://bit.ly/45rIASE

For more information, contact Cindi Phares at cphares@vcu.edu or (804) 828-1521 or visit https://ramstrong.vcu.edu/.

Tuesday, Sep. 26, 2023 at 5 p.m.

Join staff from the da Vinci Center to learn about VCU's Master of Product Innovation program. The cross-disciplinary master’s program focuses on the application of knowledge in advanced product innovation, entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship topics with real-life clients. Register at https://connect.business.vcu.edu/register/mpi926

For more information, contact Caslin Applewhite at applewhiteec@vcu.edu or visit https://davincicenter.vcu.edu/news--events/.

Wednesday, Sep. 27, 2023 from noon to 12:30 p.m.

Take a break from the noise to find a quiet reflection with guided meditation. This meditation, brought to you by VCU HR and VCU RecWell, is suitable for all levels of practice. Register in Talent@VCU or at: https://bit.ly/3KUaKgN

For more information, contact Cindi Phares at cphares@vcu.edu or (804) 828-1521 or visit https://ramstrong.vcu.edu/.

Wednesday, Sep. 27, 2023 from noon to 1 p.m.

The C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research and Health Sciences Library will present a biostatistics seminar via Zoom. Roy Sabo, Ph.D., associate professor, Biostatistics, will discuss how to establish an early collaboration with a biostatistician and how the relationship can benefit your research project. Questions: http://www.cctr.vcu.edu Register for the Zoom link at the following URL.

For more information, contact Pamela Dillon, Pharm.D., research liaison, at pmdillon@vcu.edu or visit https://vcu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEqdOGsrTgoG9DKZUC1TTieCUpNhct1281J.

Thursday, Sep. 28, 2023 from noon to 2 p.m.

The School of Medicine's Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is partnering with related groups to host a health sciences interprofessional pride mixer. Open to all students, faculty and staff, the mixer will provide opportunities for participants to embrace community to increase LGBTQIA+ visibility in the health sciences. This event will be held at the Main Hospital, 1250 E. Marshall St., Room 1-422. Register at the following URL.

For more information, contact Ashli Phillips at ashli.phillips@vcuhealth.org or visit https://vcuhealth.libcal.com/event/11229212.

Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Jay Garvey, Ph.D., University of Vermont, will visit campus as part of the Critical Quantitative Methodologies Speaker Series, hosted by the School of Education, to share his work in queer quantitative methodologies in higher education. His talk will be in Room 4084B, Oliver Hall – School of Education, 1015 W. Main St. and via Zoom ID 88462652158.

For more information, contact Kamden Strunk at strunk2@vcu.edu.

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

In conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month, the School of Medicine Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will host two Q&A sessions moderated by second-year medical student Farheen Zaman from the Latino Medical Student Association student interest group. This event, featuring senior leaders Arturo Saavedra, M.D., Ph.D., and Silvia Munoz Price, M.D., Ph.D., is designed to bring forth the importance of Hispanic leadership in academic medicine and how the lack thereof could have negative implications in education, research and patient care. The event will be in the Learning Theater, James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Medical Education Center, 1201 E. Marshall St. Register at the following URL.

For more information, contact Ashli Phillips at ashli.phillips@vcuhealth.org or visit https://vcuhealth.libcal.com/event/11259122.

Children’s swim lessons at the Cary Street Gym Aquatic Center are now open to VCU students and RecWell members. Four types of lessons will be offered: preschool 1, 2 and 3 and parent/child. Full information is available on the RecWell website. Session dates run from Oct. 14 to Nov. 4. Register by noon Oct. 14 at the following URL.

For more information, contact Mat Scott at aquatics@vcu.edu or visit https://recwell.vcu.edu/play/aquatics/childrens-swim-lessons/.

The VCU RecWell Group Exercise Team will host Yoga Day on Gratitude Day - Thursday, Sept. 21, at Cary Street Gym, 101 S. Linden St. Yoga Day 2023 will be filled with special group exercise classes to celebrate the physical, mental and spiritual practice of yoga. Classes will include exploration of movement, meditation and unity of mind and body, along with this year’s theme of gratitude.

For more information, contact Nadine Madison at groupexprgm@vcu.edu or visit https://recwell.vcu.edu/play/group-exercise/.

Human Resources will present "How to Retire With the Virginia Retirement System" for VCU employees. These sessions are open to VCU employees only, not VCU Health System employees. Register for an upcoming session at https://bit.ly/3NqLY7a. For more information, create a service request at https://go.vcu.edu/hrsupport.

For more information, contact VCU Benefits at benefits@vcu.edu or (804) 827-1723 or visit https://hr.vcu.edu/current-employees/benefits/a-z-list-of-benefits/retirement/planning-resources/.

The VCU Wellbeing Lab invites you to participate in a research study on two stress reduction programs for undergraduate students. VCU investigators seek to understand how two online stress reduction programs affect students’ mood and stress-related behavior. Compensation is available. Sign up before Monday, Oct. 2.

For more information, contact Polina Beloborodova at vcu.stress.reduction@gmail.com or visit https://beloborodp.wixsite.com/stressreduction.