Wisconsin Medical Alumni Association President's Message: An Exciting Autumn

Autumn brings an exciting new start to each school year. The new crop of students has arrived with energy, excitement and dedication to begin their medical careers. We recently initiated them into our medical community with the White Coat Investiture Ceremony co-sponsored by Wisconsin Medical Alumni Association (WMAA) and the State Medical Society.

The WMAA also played a big role in welcoming the new medical students to campus with events such as "Movie Night" and "Take a Student to Dinner Night." The WMAA encourages new innovative programs that continue to help the School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) stand out among the national leaders in medical education.

No fall is complete without Homecoming Weekend, and I hope all of you who came enjoyed it as much as I did. It was fascinating to hear from our banquet guest speaker Dennis Maki, MD, of the Class of 1967, who shared his thoughts on the H1N1 flu epidemic and reflected on his years as an SMPH faculty member.

All the other great activities - the football game, the tailgate, the seven class reunions-allowed so many of us to reacquaint ourselves with classmates and fellow alumni, and we also learned about the exciting expansion of new facilities on the medical campus.

You will want to note that another football event, the Residents Tailgate, will take place on Saturday, November 14, 2009. As you know, the WMAA has made reaching out to residents a strategic goal. I plan to be at the party to meet with residents and enjoy the Wisconsin versus Michigan game. I hope to see you there.

The WMAA Winter Event is also right around the corner. Mark your calendars for Friday, February 19, 2010. To be held in the Wisconsin Dells, this will be a family-friendly event. We expect this fun get-together will liven up the winter for everyone.

The WMAA will play a role in progress throughout the entire year by focusing on a variety of major initiatives to show our support. One is an amazing opportunity to lend our financial support through the "Great People Medical School Scholarship" fund. This program increases your gift to SMPH scholarships with 50 percent matching funds from the UW Foundation.

In these stressful economic times, we are truly fortunate to have an opportunity to really boost scholarship opportunities for our students, but we must act quickly to take advantage of the limited time remaining for this generous program.

Your help is also greatly needed to meet our WMAA pledge to increase Middleton Society membership by 50 percent over the next two years. The Middleton Society recognizes alumni and friends who have pledged to donate $10,000 to the school over time. I view this as an opportunity to show appreciation to our alma mater, which has created such great opportunities in our own personal lives. It's also a way to help improve opportunities for our students and ultimately physicians of the future.

On Wisconsin!

By John Krygar

This article appears in the fall 2009 issue of Quarterly.