Admissions Tips from the National President of AMSA

Below is a transcript of the conversation with Dr. Annelise Silva, Admissions Tips from the National President of AMSA.

An Introduction of Dr. Annelise Silva

Alright, well hi everyone. I’m Annalise. I just graduated from the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine and I’m the new national president of AMSA, the American Medical Student Association. I got my start. I grew up in Arizona. Do shout out to Arizona out over there. And so I studied pre-med for a while, but after college realized that I really wanted to be in the communities that I was gonna be serving. And so I ended up doing Teach for America after college and got really invested in educational equity and realized you can’t get educational equity without health equity. And so that kind of made me find my place into medicine and into AMSA as well.

So I started with AMSA during 2020 at the same time as I started medical school, right in July 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. And I was looking for community, I was looking for spaces to meet other people for advocacy and just to honestly like make friends. And so, I got involved with my chapter’s AMSA but at the time there was nothing going on. And so we as chapter officers kind of banded together and said, “Hey, let’s take this opportunity to make something incredible.” And somehow I got the attention of national and we did some really, really awesome stuff within AMSA. And then when I learned about AMSA National and all the incredible things that are happening on that front, I said I had to be a part of it. So really in a lot of ways for me, this kind of health equity journey, this educational equity journey, just all of it together was the perfect fit for me with AMSA as I became, I guess now a doctor. So that’s how I got involved with AMSA.

What is the Future Physicians for Change Event?

So I know the MET Gala just happened, but I like to think of Future Physicians for Change as the event of the season. So it’s basically, in a quick overview, it’s about a three-day conference, just jam-packed full of professional development, networking, advocacy, learning, connecting all of these different things. It’s huge. It’s made for both pre-meds and for medical students from all across the globe. It’s unique to any other pre-med or medical student conference in the fact that it’s geared just for you guys as students, which is really, really exciting.

We have things like pre-med and medical student sim challenges where you can work within teams to be able to diagnose and treat your patients. We have clinical skills where you can learn how to suture or you can also present your research. You can also network with a lot of different people and we have so many different things that are going on. And then one of the biggest keynotes is that we have an entire day for advocacy on Capitol Hill, which is so exciting. And so basically you’ll be able to learn how do you become an advocate, why should you become an advocate? How do you use your voice as a future physician and then be able to take it on the Hill, which is amazing. It’s unlike anywhere else. And I am literally so excited.

What Will Students Walk Away With?

When I think about what I want to walk away from any conference feeling is this sense of I am inspired to do more, be more, see more, and learn more. Right? And so I think that’s really the biggest thing that I would hope for everyone to walk away with from FP4C is that you have come away with this new understanding not only of medicine but maybe of yourself and other people around you. And you’ve made new friends, you’ve made new connections, you have this better insight on how to take yourself to the next level and you had a whole bunch of fun doing it.

So that’s really a lot of the kind of soft goals. But then kind of really target goals is really this whole conference is designed to help future physicians like you. And I guess me, again, I have to get used to this idea of being a doctor, but this idea of you are coming in to take your career to the next level in every sense of the word. And so this is such an amazing opportunity to be able to network with so many other types of people so that when you do walk away from the conference, you feel like you have a community at your back. And that’s really the beauty of AMSA is we have a whole bunch of programming. Absolutely. But it’s the community of being around people who are just as excited and passionate as you are. And I’m hoping that everyone who walks away from the conference feels that too.

What Will the Keynotes and Speakers Be?

Yes. Oh my gosh. So the keynote speakers this year are, the lineup is fantastic. So some of our keynote speakers, one is Dr. Abdul El-Sayed who is the host of America Dissected, the incredible podcast that many people know. He’s an amazing epidemiologist, he’s an amazing speaker. He’s written so many different articles and things and so we’re excited to have him come on. We have another speaker, Dr. Loretta Ross. And she is an incredible, she’s one of the founding people of the reproductive justice health movement and has been a key advocate for reproductive justice as it stands today, which is so exciting. And then one of our final keynote speakers is Tiffany Wright, who is a huge, huge name in racial equity and racial justice was one of the previous councils for President Biden and is a current council for Johns Hopkins University, helping make a lot of different changes in the legal sphere specifically for racial equity and justice.

So all of these keynote speakers are just phenomenal. And then in addition to the keynote speakers, we have people from everywhere across the country, so huge program directors or various different admissions directors coming to talk. We have a whole residency specialty fair and a pre-med health fair for students to come and see. So we have people who are renowned across the country but also if you wanna learn a little bit more about getting into medical school or getting into residency, we have people for that too. And everybody kind of sprinkled in between.

Is There an Opportunity for Networking?

So I think one of the incredible things about being at a global conference is that you have that opportunity to network with people around in completely different spaces and completely different perspectives on not only medicine but also medical education. So I think that’s really exciting for networking, collaborating. I think another piece that’s exciting is that we have built-in spaces and built-in times during the workshops and during the sessions where you’re expected to interact with others where there’s group time to really think about what’s going on in those kinds of things. We have spaces designed specifically during the convention that are promoting just that network connecting vibe and then also all of the after-hours for fun connections and that kind of thing.

Also we are taking over the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, so everybody’s gonna be in the same hotel, which is also a lot of fun to be able just to kind of network and hang out. And then finally the last part that’s super exciting is we have a conference app. So you can use that opportunity to just connect with other people, share information so that you can connect with them afterward, build out your profile so you can see who’s going to the conference. And so you have, not only can I meet people, but then also I have their information at my fingertips, which is also super exciting as well.

What Topics Will be Covered?

How do we address DEI and how do we address med tech and how all that comes out? I think if it’s any evidence by our keynote speakers that DEI is a really huge focus not only for the conference but for our whole organization in general. So you’re gonna have so many different sessions that are really designed to help you understand things like bringing underrepresented minorities into medicine, things like reclaiming your power, things like how do we talk about black maternal mortality. So a lot of different sessions that are geared specifically towards DEI, which is super, super exciting to help not only build your understanding but give you tools on how do you address that as a future physician. So that’s amazing.

Some exciting things on the med tech side, I mean beyond things like the interactive exhibits that we’re gonna have in general like the sim sessions and those kinds of pieces. We have an entire health innovation challenge, which I’m so excited. People have been submitting their cases for the past few months and this is the final where we get to kind of talk and these teams get to present on here. We are designing innovative ways to address current healthcare problems. And so that’s something I’m really excited to see as we go onward in terms of the med tech side of things and see what people come up with and see how we’re addressing these issues right here, right now. So a lot of different things that are super, super exciting in these spaces that are so important to medical students. We’ve curated literally this whole conference to be geared towards these issues that are super prevalent right now.

Past Events and Testimonials

Without reading off my screen. In terms of the actual testimonies, so this is actually AMSA’s 74th year and so we’ve been doing conventions for a while, which is super exciting. And I think some of the biggest highlights for the convention is advocacy is one of those things. A lot of people walk away saying I’ve never advocated before. I didn’t really know what it meant to use my voice or that what I could say or could do. But you know, advocating always felt a little bit scary. It always felt a little bit like I don’t talk to lawmakers, that’s kind of weird to me. And so being able to give students the tools to walk away from that, a lot of students say that it helps empower them to be able to navigate that space a lot better, which you have to do as a physician.

Another thing that people come away walking away saying is that they’re able to learn skills at our conference that might not happen at their school ever. And so we’re able to touch on topics that medical schools and other institutions might not necessarily be talking about as often. And being able to have space for students to really process their emotions and their feelings and learn a little bit more of how to talk about hard topics when it comes into medicine. So I think that’s really empowering.

I think the last kind of thing for people is that in terms of testimonials is that they say that they come away walking away with a lot more friends and a lot more community people who they find they like we like to say you find your AMSA type and so you are able to be able to kind of come around people who you might have never met ever and you have this opportunity to build and grow and learn and make friends that last because we have such a huge network. You have friends that are lasting years into the future. So one of the fun things that we are coming back with this year is in a whole legacy of leaders alumni event, which I’m super excited to hear about. So AMSA has, in terms of testimonials, I can definitely read out quotes, but I think the power is being able to see our alumni come back and our alumni be so passionate and excited about continuing on with AMSA moving forward.

Future Direction of the Conference and AMSA

That is my most favorite question. And part of it is because next year is the 75th anniversary of AMSA. So that’s gonna be major in so many different ways. It’s 75 years of being huge advocates. I can’t even begin to tell you guys all the secrets quite yet, but just know it’s gonna be huge and it’s gonna take, even with this conference, this conference is gonna be incredible, but next year’s conference and the conferences coming afterward, oh my goodness, just keep going up and up and up. And so I think that’s one of the things I’m most excited about is that we are finally out of the kind of years of pandemic conferences with like virtual and those kinds of things. So we’re able to start folding back all of the really, really cool things that we used to be able to do.

And now just taking that even to the next level. So some of the things that I’m excited for coming in the future really have to do around how can we take everything that we’re doing, make it bigger, better, and keep going on. In my head, I’d like to think one of the biggest and coolest things about this conference is that it’s not just AMSA that’s hosting it. We actually have seven other medical student organizations who are partnering to put on Future Physicians for Change. So it’s not just AMSA’s convention, we have a whole bunch of other groups who are hosting this event as well. And so being able to bring medical students from literally every corner of the country and the world to this conference is gonna be the most incredible thing. And as we grow with more partners, the conference is just gonna grow in general. So this is really, really exciting. And this is actually only our second year in being able to do this kind of shared hosting kind of conference. And so as we continue to really settle into the shared service model, we are excited to just bring this opportunity for more and more medical students and pre-medical students as well.

Watch More