- I had pretty much spent a lot of time studying and hadn't really spent a lot of time exploring other interests of mine.

Prior to starting med school, one of my mentors told me they thought I needed a different outlet besides just medicine.

(upbeat electronic music) My name's Carmen Aguirre.

I go by VJ Neurite.

I'm creating a show file.

I'm going through a list of the songs that are gonna be played and coming up with what visual look we're going to have on stage.

I got into doing visuals the year before I started med school.

Found it really fun and started doing it as just a hobby, slowly developed into something I kind of had not predicted.

- Let's go.

(upbeat music) - The uniqueness of being a med student, VJ has really taught me the importance of having balance in life.

Understanding that balance is so important for helping your patients find that balance.

(upbeat music) When I first started med school, was the first time I experienced a lot of anxiety and things like that.

I had never really experienced that before, like severe anxiety, and VJing gave me an outlet to treat that anxiety.

And so I think one does not exist without the other, for me.

This is a creative monster.

This is a sleepy monster.

For me, I really define or think, in terms of disability, I think a lot about mental health.

This is a happy monster.

(chuckles) In COVID, I got into the NFT community and was making digital art and I came up with a concept for really wanting to address mental health in children.

Sad monster.

When COVID hit, we saw a five times increase in the amount of kids that were coming into the emergency room with mental health complaints.

Sometimes it's hard to communicate the types of emotions you're having, so my idea was coming up with these little monsters that each represented a different emotion.

The goal around the project was really to bring attention to talking about emotions and feelings.

What I found was it was not just a valuable tool with kids and mental health, but also people that had difficulties communicating.

So this could be people with language barriers, people with, who may be neurodiverse.

Confused monster, I like this one.

I did a rotation at a hospital, and this is something I don't like to admit, but like the staff was arguing about who was going to have to take the patient with a mental health disorder.

It didn't come from a place of hatred, it just came from a place of not understanding.

I created a whole like emotional support pet, so all of the monsters have pets.

My own experiences with mental health as well as like my experiences in rotations, really changed my course in what I wanted to study.

Because initially I was planning to do neurosurgery and neurology, and it guided me into wanting to do mental health and psychiatry.

Medicine, it's very set up to cater towards an average rather than an individualized care plan.

I don't think it's always very successful as a result, because we're all so unique and diverse.

And I think it also alienates the most diverse people from getting the type of care that they need.

This is a shy monster.

If we can break down the barriers of seeing things in a certain box, then we can kind of progress towards a better future in medicine.

(calm music) - [Announcer] This program was produced in collaboration with the Center for the Art of Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

And funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(calm music)