"We wanted to create a forum for kids to talk about the field of medicine and what they could do in the community to help in people's knowledge of health care," says Adam McMahan, co-director of the new UAF Premed Society.

Started last semester with friend Richard Hallock, the Premed Society has created a strong base for students interested in one day joining the medical field.

"We were just frustrated with the lack of any real information or activities having to do with the [medical] field besides basics like biology or bio-chemistry," McMahan said.

In response to this lack of activity, McMahan and Hallock arranged for local doctors to speak on campus, getting health care professionals from Fairbanks Memorial and Eielson to discuss their career.

"In addition to the guest speakers, we try and talk to the public about twice a month about free health insurance for children," said McMahan. The Premed Society works with SHOUT, a part of the children's defense fund, to get low-income and other eligible children signed up for health care.

"We try and hit high traffic areas like Wal-Mart and Fred Meyers," said McMahan. "It's kind of surprising how many people don't have health insurance for their kids."

For one week this past January, Hallock, McMahan, and member Emily Davidson went to Northwest Guatemala to help with the "Children of the Americas" program. In it, doctors from America travel to Guatemala to offer their services to needy individuals free of charge.

"It was a great experience. Emily even got to help remove a 40 pound tumor," said McMahan.

This semester, the UAF Premed Society will be hosting guest speaker Dr. Tom Nighswander in concern to the AIDS epidemic in Africa. In addition, the club will try and host a fundraiser for National AIDS Week in April.

To learn more about the UAF Premed Society and/or event times, contact the co-directors at fsrjh4@uaf.edu.

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