Dear Emory MSTP Alumni,
In my role as president of the Emory MD/PhD Student Association, I am writing to you on behalf of our current and future students. As you may know, the current funding climate has increased the challenges facing all Medical Scientist Training Programs. Our program, like other very successful ones, needs external funds to continue to support our students in the best ways possible. While we have thus far managed to strategically prioritize and manage our resources, the most recent cuts are impacting student development resources. To help us in carrying forward our goal to be one of the nation’s most outstanding training programs, we have established an independent, self-generating, and reliable fund for student development. I would like to strongly encourage you to help us continue to serve our student body and recruit new exceptional students by contributing your support to this fund.
As you may remember, our program has a long-standing history of supporting the development of its students. Student activities sponsored by the program at present include funding student attendance at national conferences; providing dinner at our clinical research conferences; and organizing program-wide social activities, to name a few. Our program has continued to expand and flourish since your time here, and we would like to continue to offer these opportunities to as many students as possible. We would also like to institute new ideas for student activities (e.g. a monthly journal club in a social setting) to keep our program fresh and responsive. All of these educational activities need your support!
Based on our past success, our program continues to add more spots for MD/PhD trainees and as a consequence we need to expand our recruitment efforts. We are competing against other top institutions for the ‘cream of the crop’. To recruit these outstanding candidates, we must showcase our program, its amazing students, and all that Atlanta has to offer. We have traditionally held the social event during recruitment at a local restaurant, and this has been very enthusiastically received by the applicants. We would like to continue this tradition, and we need your support to do so.
Finally, but certainly not least, our annual retreat serves a critical need: to slow down and take stock of our program and our progress. It is a forum for senior students to pass on their wisdom, a chance for new students to bond both with their classmates and the other classes, and an opportunity to make critical adjustments in the program. Again, as our program continues to grow, this essential forum will need external support to maintain its important features such as the ability to have an overnight stay in a regional location.
Whether you can buy an interviewee a beer (i.e. donate $5), send a senior graduate student to an international conference (i.e. donate $3000), or even more, we would be extremely grateful for your support as we work to help encourage and train your next colleague or your children’s next mentor! We need your support to train the next generation. Please make your tax-deductible donation here.
Kind Regards,
Lauren Askew, G1
President of the Emory MD/PhD Student Association