A Washington State University med student Joel Bervell accumulated over 400,000 followers and 10 million likes on his TikTok social media page where he debunks medical myths and talks about stories relating to race. Since he began his mission he has highlighted numerous disparities pertaining to race in the medical system. According to Bervell these disparities aren’t due to one single person there here because they were built into our medical system during a time when people accepted it. 

Since embarking on this mission to make a serious change in the medical industry TikTok awarded his $50,000 from their Black Creative Grant to help create his dream project which he is currently working on. Bervell is very clearly using his social media for the best and possibly changing one of the largest industries in the world in the future. 

Bervell did his undergraduate at Yale then his master’s at Boston University and had a choice between numerous schools. WSU’s medical program’s mission and the college’s name itself caught his eye and led him to choose our new developing medical school in eastern Washington. Here at WSU, we pride ourselves on having people such as Bervell within our programs and we truly believe they are the embodiment of what we stand for as a university. 

Throughout the years we have been trying our best to evolve and change to become a better fit and resource for our students, faculty, and community that show the university support and love. We have been a part of many students such as Bervell’s journey and it speaks volumes towards programs, professors, and the university as a whole. 

We plan to increase WSU’s ability to highlight its achievements and their societal impacts such as Bervell’s and many other students that have run their course through our programs. We hope to be the catalyst to many more students succeeding in the future and be able to showcase their achievements and be able to share how they have changed the world for the better. 

About the author

Alex is a writer for the Office of Strategy, Planning, and Analysis at Washington State University. As a strategic advertising student, he focuses on brand development and promotion. He also works as an intern in Switzerland with the luxury watch company, Chopard.