The 2018 Student National Medical Association (SNMA) Annual Medical Education Conference (AMEC) was held in San Francisco, California, from March 28-April 1. It was at this convention that fourth-year Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine student Amma Boakye was elected to the position of National Secretary. At the 2018 AMEC, medical students and professionals gathered to attend a wide range of educational and networking events. It is consistently the largest gathering of underrepresented minority medical students at any time of the year in any place in the nation.
Amma Boakye was born in State College, Pennsylvania, but moved to Dayton, Ohio, early in her childhood. It is Dayton where she would attend Wright State University to earn her Bachelor of Science in Exercise Biology and learn the true meaning of community. A self-described diplomat, she lives to bridge the gap between seemingly disparate things and people using her camera and keyboard. Her journey in documenting people, places, and things, is manifest as a blog “absurdities and degenerates” that she writes with a fellow medical student. Amma hopes to obtain a position at an Internal Medicine-Pediatrics residency program as well as to provide medical care abroad.
More than 2,000 medical and pre-medical students, physicians, exhibitors, administrators, government officials, and observers attended the 2018 AMEC. It is truly a distinct honor for Ms. Boakye to be elected to her position.
The theme of the 2018 AMEC was Embracing Our Diversity: Filling the Gaps and Building the Future. The SNMA follows its mission by creating programming initiatives to support current and future underrepresented minority medical students. Members simultaneously address the needs of underserved communities. The SNMA also works to increase the number of clinically excellent, culturally competent, and socially conscious physicians. For more information, please visit www.snma.org.
About SNMA
Founded in 1964 by medical students from Howard University College of Medicine and Meharry Medical College, the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) is the nation’s oldest and largest, independent, student-run organization focused on the needs and concerns of medical students of color. Organized with chapters across the nation, the SNMA membership includes over 7,000 medical students, pre-medical students and physicians. SNMA is dedicated to increasing the number of African-American, Latino, and other students of color entering and completing medical school and to assisting in the eradication of racial and ethnic health disparities. SNMA community service and mentoring programs provide science appreciation, health care education, mentoring, and academic enrichment to elementary, junior high school, high school and college students interested in pursuing health-related careers.