Grissom Scholar brings bipartisan policy conversations to Centre

As a pre-med student, Getzamary Solano’s education has focused mostly on STEM classes, but her passion to better serve her future patients has led to a new opportunity.

The sophomore was recently named an Ambassador for the Answer the Call program, which provides college students with training and bipartisan policy education so they can raise awareness on their campuses about key national issues, including national debt and social program funding.

“I want to be a physician who serves,” Solano said. “I’m hoping to work in rural spaces, specifically with underserved communities and Hispanic populations. A lot of these communities are affected by public policy.”

The program perfectly matches Solano’s desire to improve not just the health of her patients, but have an impact on their entire livelihood.

“I felt this was a really good route for my education on the policies that would affect my patients in the future,” she said. “I hope that as an educated physician, I can use my knowledge and power to help make policies that help my patients.”

One of the leaders guiding the program is a Centre alumnus who understands the impact future professionals like Solano can have. 

Garric Buzzard ’15 serves as Director of Leadership Programs for Across the Aisle, the nonprofit organization behind Answer the Call. He emphasized that while the program recruits many future policymakers and helps them make connections on Capitol Hill, it is just as impactful for students like Solano who don’t plan to go directly into politics.

“Having informed people who are going to be interacting with the general population in this program is really important,” Buzzard said. “We’re trying to take these really big, messy, complex policy issues and distill them down into information that people will engage with and are interested in.” 

He pointed to Solano’s interest in Medicare as an example of how understanding current national concerns can help her better serve future patients.

“She’ll know how to engage with these complex policy issues and talk to her patients about how to engage with them as well,” Buzzard said. “She’ll also be able to vote informed on these issues, which is also a huge difference that we can make.”

As an Ambassador, Solano is empowered to increase her peers’ awareness of current policies affecting college students. She also hopes to spread awareness of the opportunity itself and recruit future Ambassadors passionate about social education. 

She already has an event planned to introduce other students to the program. Solano will host a “study breaker” with donuts, coffee and information about the Ambassadorship.

“It’s a more student-focused event, which is important to me,” she said. “I wanted to make the first event sponsored by Answer the Call a small, intimate event to reflect Centre’s campus.” 

As Answer the Call strengthens its presence on campus — and with the help of additional Ambassadors — larger events could follow.

One example includes bringing a representative from Across the Aisle to give a presentation and provide bipartisan information surrounding the national debt, student loans, social security, medicare, and more. 

“These presentations really help educate the college campus on what type of policies and issues affect them as college students, Solano said. 

Solano can serve as an Ambassador  until she graduates from Centre, and hopes to see more Ambassadors on campus in the coming semesters. She is also looking forward to the mentorship aspect and inspiring other students to get involved in Answer the Call. 

“I’m really excited because I’m big on sharing opportunities that I’ve had before,” she said. 

As a Grissom Scholar, she knows how powerful support and recommendations can be. In fact, it was Sarah Scott, Associate Dean and Director of the Grissom Scholars Program, who recommended she apply to be an Ambassador. Now, Solano is preparing to do the same for her fellow students. 

“Whenever anyone expresses even a remote interest in public policy, I’m like ‘You should apply! I can refer you. It’s really great,” Solano said. “I think it’s really cool that it helps build another aspect of community, and I love building community in that sense.”