National Rep - Who, Me?

The weekend after my Halloween adventures with Rachel in D.C., I found myself traveling to D.C. yet again.  This time, it was on Einstein's dime, and it was decidedly more official.  Fellow classmate and student council member, Utibe, and I left after our Thursday classes to fly (yes, fly) to the capitol.  By completely strange but fortunate circumstances, we had recently become Einstein's representatives on the Organization of Student Representatives (OSR) of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC - the organization responsible for the MCAT, medical school applications, and the residency match, among other things), and we were traveling to D.C. to participate in the OSR portion of the AAMC annual meeting.

One school out of hundreds...well, more like hundred.

I'm sure it all sounds incredibly dry and boring, but let me assure you that it was not.  Without a doubt, it has been the highlight of my academic career at Einstein so far.  I had the chance to meet student representatives from other medical schools across the country.  I was able to learn about the enormous variety of educational initiatives and technologies at other schools.  I learned about the biggest challenges facing students across the country as well as the proposals being made to counter them.  I learned about the proposed changes and committee work on revising the MCAT and the medical school application process, as well as the changes ready to be implemented to make the residency Match and "Scramble" more organized and less nightmarish for fourth-year medical students.  On top of all of that, I heard a fantastic speech by the keynote speaker, Malcolm Gladwell, who used his phenomenal storytelling skills to get across the simple yet powerful message about the importance of humility in leadership.

We found a pure chocolate replica of the Einstein memorial.  Awesome!

And I participated in the elections of OSR leadership.  And I gave advice to pre-med college students.  And I had dinner with Einstein's Dean of Education.  And I made great new friends and contacts with other OSR reps.  And Utibe and I tried very hard (but ultimately failed) to use the full allotment of meal money from Einstein.  It was an incredible weekend.  I learned so much about medical education.  I'm excited to continue to serve on the OSR; hopefully we will be able to continue to go to these meetings.  I never really thought about academic medicine before, but I've discovered its excitement and appeal.  When I was telling some friends back at Einstein about my experience and how much it excited me, I was pleasantly surprised when one said, "Oh my gosh...you're totally going to be the Dean of a medical school someday."  Hmm...never thought about it before...but maybe when I'm ready to retire from the Air Force, it's something to consider...?