NCFMRMS Scholarship Recipient Reports
In early May, the LAAFP chapter announced to student and resident members the opportunity to receive a $750 scholarship to attend the 2016 National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students in Kansas City, July 28 – July 30. The applicants were asked to submit a letter of interest, their CV and a recommendation letter from an LA Academy member. Scholarship recipients were asked to write a brief summary on their experience. The following reports were received in time for this publication:
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Rithika Mathias
Medical Student
David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
I greatly appreciate the experience of being able to attend the AAFP conference this year. I decided to pursue family medicine early in my third year of medical school and every subsequent experience I have with family medicine physicians, residents and other aspiring family physician medical students has reaffirmed that decision. At the conference I was able to meet passionate, kind, interesting students and residents from all around the country and hear about their future aspirations. I see family medicine as a field rooted in the community and in social justice, to not only be able to treat but prevent various health issues for all populations. The decision on where to train is a very complicated, not only because family medicine is a very broad field that can focus on many different populations but also because of personal factors like relationships and family. I appreciated that everyone was willing to discuss those factors with me and knew that this field cared as much about me as a person as becoming a fully competent doctor. The AAFP conference was an amazing experience, especially topped off with some Kansas City barbecue. Thank you again for the opportunity to attend!
Helen Yu, MD
Family Medicine PGY-2
Kaiser Los Angeles Medical Center
I am grateful to LAAFP for their support in helping me attend the AAFP national conference. I attended as a medical student and found it very helpful in narrowing my residency choices. I enjoyed directly interacting with residents from each program to learn about what drew them to their respective programs. As I returned as a second year resident, I found the conference to be a rejuvenating experience. I was reminded that my decision to go into family medicine due to its parallels to public health and social justice is an idea shared by all of my colleagues. The breadth and diversity in family medicine remains inspiring. I loved seeing how former classmates now in family medicine are practicing in rural settings, academic hospitals, and community clinics. Through attending various afternoon breakout sessions, I was also able to integrate some education into a trip that was largely aimed at representing my residency program. Most enjoyable was meeting 4th year medical students who have also chosen family medicine as their career. I heard many stories about what led them to their decision, and all of these stories had a uniting theme of wanting to address health disparities from a preventative standpoint – one of the true tenants of our field.
