Students in medical majors have a new club – the American Medical Student Association.
The American Medical Student Association is a national organization for medical and pre-medical chapters. This marks the first year that AMSA will be active on campus as a club, which is run through Student Activities. Leaders will soon apply to have it recognized as a national chapter.
“By March, hopefully, crossing fingers, at the conference, we are going to be chartered as a national chapter,” said AMSA president Donna Castelblanco.
Castelblanco found the organization online while looking through StumbleUpon. She wanted to bring it to MU so students can be a part of everything the AMSA has to offer.
Castelblanco and fellow officer Anna Konstas attended a regional conference with chapters in the northeastern region to learn more about AMSA. They thought the chapter would be a good fit for MU students.
“Each member that is in AMSA is a national member, so all of the officers and some of the local Misericordia students, they are national members also and they get tons of benefits,” said Castelblanco.
AMSA enables students to attend conferences, receive leadership training, study abroad, and it provides scholar programs, medical retreats, internships and webinars.
AMSA also offers discounts on textbooks for national members, Castelblanco said. MU’s AMSA is starting a mentorship program with the Commonwealth Medical College. Medical students will be paired with pre-medical students to help provide motivation and share experiences. They will also provide insight about applying and getting into graduate school.
Castelblanco wants to make AMSA welcoming to other pre-health professionals.
“It is a pre-medical chapter but there are so many opportunities for pre-health professionals so that includes PT, OT, bio majors. Just because you are in MSTOA or PT club, you can join us to,” said Castelblanco. “This is more than just a PT or bio club. Because it’s a national organization, you are going to get recognized nationally.”
AMSA is open to all pre-professional students.
Junior Matt Essington said AMSA is an important addition and opportunity for student s in medicial disciplines.
“We figured it would be a nice change to have one group that a lot of the pre-meds or any people that want to further themselves in science besides just biology, chemistry,” said Essington, “We can all meet up, have study sessions and if we want to meet with people in our fields.”
Essington said AMSA membership looks good on a resume because it shows employers dedication and interest in continuing education.
Konstas said her interactions with the medical school chapters showed that AMSA membership provides students with an edge because it demonstrates awreness of issues in the science community.
“You are gaining that information, and there’s a whole online community that you can be apart of with webinars, series, and talks and stuff like that,” she said.
Essington and the other AMSA members encourage all science majors to join.
“One of the selling points of AMSA is that they are the physicians of tomorrow,” said Essington.