Programs and activities

AOA is excited to announce a number of new programs for 2009! In an effort to practice the values promoted by the organization and to make membership in the organization more meaningful, we are initiating several different projects designed to serve the University and the Dallas community. Information on these projects is below.

AOA faculty mentoring program: New for 2009! The program is designed to provide faculty mentors for students selected into AOA. A list of AOA faculty and their corresponding specialties is available on this website (see navigation bar at left). Student members are encouraged to contact and arrange a meeting with faculty in their field of interest. The role of faculty is to help students in making residency and career decisions. These faculty are not intended to replace students’ appointed faculty mentors during the residency application process. They instead should help junior initiates with 4th year planning and serve as an additional source of information during the residency process. Many thanks to those who have already volunteered! If you are a faculty member interested in being a part of the mentoring program, please contact us at utswaoa@gmail.com.

Project Collegiality: Also new for 2009! The primary goal of this project is to promote an atmosphere of collegiality between and among the different medical school classes. In order to achieve this goal, AOA is partnering with the Office of Medical Education and the new UT Southwestern Colleges to aid 1st and 2nd year medical students in making the transition from college to medical school and from the pre-clinical years to the clinical years. Specific activities include providing studying tips for first year students during their transition semester and tips on preparation for Step 1 to second year students. Second year students will also be given a crash-course in navigating the hospital, the hospital chart, and a routine day on wards prior to beginning their third year.

Healthy kids/Niños saludables: On September 6th, 2009 AOA is partnering with North Dallas Shared Ministries to provide Headstart and back-to-school sports physicals for kids in North Dallas. The event will be held at NDSM and staffed by AOA student and faculty members. The goals of the event are to provide free, basic health services to the community and to reinforce the commitment of students and faculty to community service. More details can be found by following the link from the calendar on the “Upcoming Events” page.

Peer Review: AOA values the classical physician virtues that lead to superior patient care. Among these are integrity, cooperation, diligence, teamwork, and clinical competence. In an effort to promote these values among all future physicians, AOA has established a system for students to evaluate their peers’ demonstration of these qualities. In its current form, the evaluation consists of an online survey. Respondents are asked to evaluate only teammates with whom they directly worked during clinical rotations. Currently, the feedback obtained is used for making decisions regarding selection into AOA and to identify individuals for awards given to outstanding graduating seniors. In the future, the information gathered from these peer evaluations may be included in the Dean’s Letter.

Other projects are still under development, and additional ideas for AOA programs are welcomed!!