Greenville medical students granted AMSA membership

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The University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville has signed an institutional partnership with the American Medical Student Association, granting the school’s medical students free memberships and benefits with AMSA.

As a member of AMSA, students will have access to educational programs, services and opportunities designed to spark empathy, humanism, and compassion in health care while assisting throughout and extending beyond their time at medical school, according to a news release.

The Greenville medical school “recognizes and celebrates this valuable partnership with AMSA, which will provide our students access to resources and connections to other future physicians around the country,” Dr. Marjorie Jenkins, dean of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville and chief academic officer for Prisma Health-Upstate, said in the news release. “This collaborative investment will go a long way in building confidence in our students, providing them with medical experience that will extend beyond their matriculation through medical school.”

With a membership of more than 27,000 medical students, premedical students, interns, residents and practicing physicians from across the country, AMSA is the oldest and largest student-led association of physicians-in-training within the United States, the release said.

"Every time we sign a new institutional partnership we’re excited about all the doors we can open up together: opportunities for more students to find a new community where they can find support and training to help them grow and thrive as leaders; opportunities for a whole community of new students to help shape and power AMSA to make change they believe in,” Hannah Hendrix, AMSA president and fourth-year medical student at Ohio State University College of Medicine, said in the release.

This partnership is made possible with funding from the Humanologi Foundation and the vision of Dr. Steven M. Reich and his wife, Jodi, the release said. Inspired by his own experiences and struggles with medical education, Reich envisioned a means to support future medical students while fostering a community of future physicians through advocacy and education.

“We formed The Humanologi Foundation to provide tools and resources to help refocus attention on the roles of empathy, humanism, and compassion in healthcare,” Reich said in the release. “By supporting programs in self-awareness training, and making sure they are available to medical students, we seek to combat the ever-increasing career trend among physicians of disengagement and burnout."

Students will have access to mentorship programming, a network of like-minded connections, access to strategic training, service opportunities and events to equip them with the confidence and experience to become leaders in health care.

The University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville opened its doors in 2012.