Alumni Affairs provides link between physicians and medical students

Thursday, August 25, 2016

The Office of Alumni Affairs provides a way for OSU-COM graduates to give back to their school and support current medical students as they work to become doctors.

“We are there from day one. We are a service to students and a network for alumni,” said Ryan Miller, director of Alumni Affairs. “I believe we are an important bridge between our current and future physicians.”

At the beginning of each year, Alumni Affairs awards a grant that is divided among student organizations to help fund club activities. The office also plans a breakfast or lunch during orientation week to explain to new medical students how the alumni group can help them throughout medical school and after graduation, he said.

“We pair students with alumni who can be mentors and provide advice and information about their medical school experience,” Miller said. “We also can help students when they are looking at possible rotations and give them ideas about which ones to choose.”

As medical students prepare for graduation, the office hosts a lunch each year for seniors to congratulate them at the end of their medical school journey and encourage them to continue using the alumni office as a resource.

Each year, the office organizes events to raise money for incoming and current medical students, including the Murray Crow, D.O. Memorial Classic summer golf tournament, Miller said. The golf tournament brings both current medical students and alumni together to network.

Alumni Affairs also hosts the annual Spring Fling continuing medical education conference each year to provide alumni and other practicing osteopathic physicians the opportunity to get up-to-date on the latest medical information and to earn CME credits required to continue practicing medicine. The event is the primary fundraiser for the scholarship program for incoming and current students.

In addition, the office hosts reunions and conference receptions for alumni throughout the year.

“What we do brings physicians together with their fellow classmates and with medical students who will be their future colleagues,” Miller said. “It is gratifying.”

Last spring, the organization’s bylaws were rewritten to expand its services to all OSU-CHS students and alumni. In addition to helping medical students, this semester will be the first to serve biomedical, forensic sciences and athletic training students and alumni.

“We are the OSU-CHS Alumni Association and we are here for all OSU-CHS students and alumni,” Miller said.