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| Pictured with SNMA Past National President Dr. Loretta Jackson ('92-'93) |
Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Student
National Medical Association’s Region III medical education conference in
Jackson, Mississippi. The conference was hosted by the University of
Mississippi Medical Center, and it was a wonderful weekend filled with great
pre-medical and medical student tracks that had everything ranging from
simulation labs for the pre-medical students to one-on-one talks with current
residents for medical students. It was nice being able to interact with the
membership of SNMA and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the conference.
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| Pictured with the founders of White Coats Black Doctors |
Since I became involved with SNMA on a national level,
conferences have typically meant either sitting in full day meetings or running
around making sure that workshops or anything else I was involved with is
running smoothly. This conference was the first time in a while that I was able
to just sit back and enjoy the programming. I also met some pretty awesome
individuals such as the founders of “White Coats Black Doctors”, MAJ Ezella
Washington – a family medicine physician and fellow DO (Woot! Woot!), and I was
extremely excited that one of the speakers was a surgeon and that there were a
few surgical residents in attendance.
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| College Buddies! |
What made the conference even more exciting for me was that
it served as a trip down memory lane. Although I am a proud SNMA Region IV
member at the moment, I started off with the organization as a pre-medical
student in region III, so it still carries a large piece of my heart. Speaking
with the pre-medical students in attendance reminded me of where I used to be
and it gave me a lot of inspiration for my presidential agenda that I am
currently hard at work on. I even ran into one of my old college buddies who is
now a physician. Just reminiscing about how we made it through the struggles of
undergrad (that biochemistry major is a beast!), to now one of us being a
physician and the other on the way, really makes me feel blessed. This journey
is definitely not an easy one, so it warms my heart to see those around me
succeed.
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| Selfie with the parents! |
The other highlight of the trip was being able to stay with
and see my parents since they live fairly close to the medical center. My
mother’s birthday was the day before the conference started, and it had been
almost a year since I had seen her, so it was nice being able to celebrate and
spend some time with her. I had already seen my dad a few times this year since
he came to pick up my daughter for the summer and brought her back, but it was
pretty cool hanging out with him too. I made sure to take a selfie with them
both before I left because I just love my parents!
But other than that, it was a great experience attending
last weekend’s conference, and I look forward to the rest of my travels with
SNMA. Oh, and shameless plug: registration for SNMA AMEC 2017 is now open, so
sign up now! It will be held in Atlanta, Georgia on April 12-16, 2017 and I am
looking forward to seeing you all! Feel free to head on over to www.snma.org
to register and find out more :-)
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