April 25, 2019 | Lauren Woods - Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine

New Chapter of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society Celebrated

On April 24 UConn School of Medicine celebrated the inaugural class of fourth-year medical students, faculty and medical residents elected to join its newly established chapter of the national Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.

All the newly elected medical students, residents, and faculty of UConn School of Medicine's AΩA CT Beta Chapter.

Fourth-year medical students elected to AΩA.

With commencement festivities around the corner, the UConn School of Medicine community gathered together on April 24 to celebrate the inaugural class of fourth-year medical students elected to its new Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society (AΩA) chapter. UConn faculty and medical residents also elected to join AΩA were honored.

As the 130th active chapter, UConn joins medical schools throughout the U.S. in the society recognizing and promoting the highest ideals of medicine. Member election to AΩA chapter is an honor that signifies excellence and commitment to scholarship, leadership, professionalism, and service.

The roots of UConn’s new Connecticut Beta chapter was first established in 2016. It is only the second chapter to be established in the state since Yale School of Medicine’s Alpha chapter was founded in 1920.

As an active AΩA chapter, each year UConn School of Medicine can nominate the top 25 percent of its medical school class to become members of the professional medical organization within their senior year. Of that 25 percent, up to 16 percent of the total medical school class may be elected into the society.

Dr. Kevin Dieckhaus

“Welcome to AΩA,” said Dr. Kevin Dieckhaus, associate professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases who leads the chapter as its AΩA Councilor. “You are the inaugural class. This is a celebration of your medical school. It really is a recognition of your commitment to excellence.”

“Congratulations to the 15 medical students and to your loved ones, and our distinguished faculty and residents,” said Bruce T. Liang, dean of UConn School of Medicine. “You all are our next chapter and on a very exciting journey of AΩA that is just going to get bigger and bigger. Thank you also to the faculty advisory board who worked hard to make this happen.”

The AΩA Faculty Board included Dieckhaus, Dr. Brooke Harnisch, Dr. Molly Brewer, Dr. David McFadden, and Dr. Adam Perrin.

“Congrats to UConn School of Medicine on being our latest AΩA chapter,” said Dr. Wiley “Chip” Souba, who gave a powerful speech to the chapter’s inaugural class about the importance of their future leadership in medicine.

Souba, a member of the AΩA National Board who serves The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth as professor of surgery specializing in surgical oncology and its Emeritus Dean, stressed to the medical students to always remember to fight against healthcare disparities they may encounter in their career.

Honored guest, Dr. Chip Souba, addressed the new AΩA CT Beta Chapter’s UConn medical school students.

“Take a stand for what you truly believe in and what brought you to medical school in the first place,” said Souba. “Walk out of here as a force of nature into your next adventure and endeavor, and be willing to take risks.”

Fourth-year medical student, Lisa O’Donovan, 28 of West Hartford who feels honored and privileged to be elected to AΩA, couldn’t agree more.

“I really loved Dr. Souba’s perspective to be a force of nature and to take a stand for our patients,” said O’Donovan. She is headed to Yale-New Haven Hospital after graduation for residency training in internal medicine.

 

 

Elected members of the inaugural chapter class include:

Class of 2019 medical students

  • Alexis Cordone
  • Madeline Coulter
  • Brett Diamond
  • Jeremy Grenier
  • Laura Hatchman
  • Austen Katz
  • Ardian Latifi
  • Julianna Lau
  • Rebecca Maher
  • Lisa O’Donovan
  • Roshni Patel
  • Mary Soyster
  • Ishan Tatake
  • Kristin Torre
  • Katelyn Wong

Residents

  • Sarah Lopez, family medicine
  • Christian Mosebach, internal medicine
  • Prateek Shukla, primary care
  • Jessica Tuan, internal medicine

 

 

 

Faculty

  • Cato T. Laurencin, University Professor at UConn, the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at UConn School of Medicine, and director of the Institute for Regenerative Engineering and The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Biomedical, Biological, Physical, and Engineering Sciences at UConn Health
  • Edwin L. Zalneraitis, professor of pediatrics and neurology and director of the pediatric residency program at UConn School of Medicine and Connecticut Children’s Medical Center

 

With UConn’s medical school being a chapter of the national honor society, these students may apply for more than one million dollars in available annual funding via a variety of scholarships and programs through the AOA national office.

Alpha Omega Alpha was founded in 1902 by a small group of medical students led by William Webster Root at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago. Its premier membership has included 57 Nobel Laureates, 11 Surgeons General of the U.S. and nearly seventy-five percent of deans of U.S. medical schools. Since its founding, AΩA has elected more than 185,000 members worldwide.

The mission of AΩA is dedicated to the belief that the profession of medicine will improve care for all patients by recognizing high educational achievement, honoring gifted teaching, encouraging the development of leaders in academia and the community, supporting the ideals of humanism and promoting service to others.