I was wondering if any of you medical students were doing the deaf or Latino health pathway? How exactly does it work? Is a pathway or humanities mandatory or optional? Do you really become fluent enough to thoroughly communicate? I'm really interested in the Latino health pathway and wanna do a summer abroad. Have any of you done a summer in another country? Sorry for the long post!
One humanities elective is required in both first and second year, although you can take up to four. They are offered in the Spring of 1st year, and the fall of 2nd year (with 2 blocks during each year, so you don't take more than one at a time). They are pretty low key, pass/fail, and have a wide range of subjects, and meet one afternoon a week for 8 weeks. The language based electives are definitely more intense. Participating in a pathway beyond just taking the humanities seminars is optional.
If you plan on doing any sort of pathway (Humanities, Ethics, Latino, Deaf, etc) you need to take 3 humanities electives total in the subject of the pathway. In order to complete the pathway, you also have to do some sort of project during 3rd or 4th year. That may be writing a paper, doing an ethics elective, teaching a humanities class to 1st and 2nd years, or a pathway specific project, like a rotation in a spanish speaking country, etc.
You do not become fluent. No one can become fluent in 24 classes. But it is a start, and you do get other language/cultural experiences in 3rd or 4th year.
Outside of doing the formal pathway, you can also do language specific rotations in the clinical years, or even during ACE - if you have language background in spanish or ASL, you can request to be put in a practice that has large patient populations.
Summer abroad is a completely separate thing from the humanities pathways. Anyone can go anywhere they want, no matter what their language skills are. Many students go abroad after first year. Funding is provided by the school. there is an application process, and you do need to have a concrete plan with a Rochester and an onsite advisor, but in general if you write a decent proposal, you will get funded. You can also do international electives in the clinical years - the process is kinda similar, and is also funded by the school.
Hope this helps.