Hey Everyone,
It was so great to see so many first-years at today's AMSA meeting! Thanks to all of you for coming, sharing your ideas, and being so interested in future involvement in AMSA. Because so many second years weren't able to attend, I wanted to give everyone some basic information on what AMSA is doing and who to contact if you're interested in getting more involved.
Primary Care Week
Full week of lectures coming up this month!
Date: October 19-23
Contact: Andrea Vlasak, [log in to unmask]
Healthcare Reform Lecture Series and Related Events
The medical school doesn't provide us any kind of formal setting in which to learn more about what's going on in healthcare reform and policy, so let's set it up ourselves! We'll be contacting leaders and educated speakers to give us information about both sides of the healthcare debate so that we can make informed decisions.
Dates: All Year
Contacts: Megan Rooney, [log in to unmask] and Eduardo Medina, [log in to unmask]
Trivia Night: Continuation of AMSA Interclass Mixers
Monthly (hopefully) 'meetings' with teams made up of both first and second years, competing for a GRAND PRIZE! (We don't even know what that will be. Email Megan with ideas). Get to know your peers and learn at the same time! (Doesn't have to be science related)
Dates: All Year
Contact: Megan Rooney, [log in to unmask]
Policy and a Pint and Conflict of Interest
Educating ourselves on current issues in healthcare through informal and/or formal discussions over drinks! If you have any special knowledge about a topic or have more ideas on where to meet or what to discuss, email Chris!
Dates: All Year, with the first event planned for October 22!
Contact: Chris Thompson, [log in to unmask]
AIDS Awareness Week
A full week of AIDS-related lectures from speakers from every discipline, hopefully including Betty McCollum (http://www.mccollum.house.gov/) and someone in public health. The entire week will culminate in a Benefit Concert starring Dr. Pacala and Ari Nahum, among others (email Cori if you're interested in performing), to raise money for Tiny Tim and Friends (http://www.tinytimandfriends.org/), where a few second years volunteered this summer in Zambia. We need all the help we can get with these events, so please email me if you're interested in helping in any way (grant writing, contacting lecturers, organizing the benefit, etc).
Dates: 11/30-12/4
Contact: Cori Russell, [log in to unmask]
Global Health Week
A full week of Global Health lectures given by clinicians who have worked abroad. This is a great way to get ideas for your own future in global health, including during third and fourth year rotations! We'll be working closely with SIHC, so this is bound to be a great week of events!
Dates: Spring, TBD
Contact: Cori Russell, [log in to unmask]
If you're interested in helping with any of these, please email the contact and we'll put you on a list to get more information on when our future event-specific meetings are scheduled. For those of you who were at the meeting today and signed up, thanks so much for your interest! We'll be contacting you soon to set up meeting times to plan our events. For those interested specifically in AIDS week and Global Health week, I'll set up the google docs with the information as soon as I can (bear with me since it's finals week next week).
Wow...sorry this is a novel...just wanted to make sure everyone knew who to contact about what.
Thanks so much to everyone who came today! This is going to be a great year!
Cori Russell
University of Minnesota Medical School-MS2
AMSA President