Welcome to Region III

**Jenn Wilson, OMS III**
Region III Trustee
Midwestern University – CCOM

Region III is comprised of twelve chapters from the states of Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. While these chapters all come from different states, the student leaders all come together with the same goal of empowering their members and communities. Region III leaders excel at mentorship with the creation of new Pre-SOMA chapters, community service through health fairs and community gardens, and professional development with financial and medical workshops to prepare students for their careers in medicine. Region III student leaders strive to enhance their members’ medical school experiences with well-rounded opportunities in political advocacy, research, fellowship, and more.

Univ. of Pikesville–Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine (UP-KYCOM)

UP-KYCOM is located in a small, vibrant town called Pikeville, situated among the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. Our future doctors thrive from educational and networking opportunities organized by KYCOM-SOMA. Over the past year, our chapter created hands-on Narcan training for the students in response to epidemic levels of drug addiction in Kentucky. A close relationship with KMA, our state medical association, has provided our students with access to the Medical Student Outreach and Leadership Program. The program is focused on community involvement and learning from the speakers about business, leadership, and law in healthcare. It also provides an opportunity to collaborate and learn from the students of allopathic medical schools of our state. A social mixer with physicians from the Pikeville Medical Center allowed our students to connect with practicing physicians from various specialties in a relaxing atmosphere. We believe that through continuing education, networking events, and working hand-in-hand with the community leaders we can bring about change on the local level, and have a nationwide impact, as well. Additionally, KYCOM SOMA submitted 10 resolutions to the SOMA national House of Delegates, which means over half of all submitted resolutions were written by KYCOM students! Together the House of Delegates passed 9 resolutions! SOMA also partnered with student affairs to bring you Donuts for Dos on National Osteopathic Medicine week. KYCOM students also showed up at “DO Day on the Hill” and advocated for policies that support the osteopathic profession, students, and patients. KYCOM SOMA has a new executive board that is excited to advance the osteopathic profession and KYCOM’s students at the national level! Our goal is to get more students involved in leadership. Together we can make a difference and continue to follow the footsteps of our school’s mission of “Bringing Medicine to the Mountains.”

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Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine-Virginia (VCOM-VA)

Edward-Via College of Osteopathic Medicine- Virginia Campus (VCOM-VA) is located in Blacksburg, Virginia. At VCOM, we have partnerships with Virginia Tech that provide us an abundance of partnership opportunities that shine light on the Osteopathic profession. We are an auto-enroll chapter, meaning that every student at VCOM-VA is a SOMA member. This year our goals are surrounding policy resolution training, community service, and engaging in difficult conversation as it pertains to policy. Through our Social Medicine discussions and resolutions committee, we aim to help our members find their voice and advocate for their passions as future osteopathic physicians. In an effort to further promote the osteopathic profession and improve our community, we have held events such as Bioethics movie screenings and discussions, ShaDO Week Yoga Nights, and a Jonesville Clean Up.

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Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine (MSU-COM)

Michigan State College of Osteopathic Medicine (MSU-COM) is composed of 3 campus sites with more than 1200 osteopathic students statewide. Our main campus is located near Michigan’s state capitol providing us with a variety of volunteer activities and political involvement opportunities with our state osteopathic association. Every October, we host our signature event – the DO Monster Dash 5k. Historically, this event has raised over $3000 for St. Baldrick’s Foundation. This year, at the National SOMA Convention, our chapter was presented with the SOMA Promotion of Osteopathic Medicine Award. Want to keep up with MSUCOM SOMA? Follow us on Instagram – @soma.msucom!

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Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-HCOM)

The Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine is composed of three campus sites – Cleveland, Dublin, and Athens. Each of our campuses have blooming communities that we can connect with and help support. We serve to provide a platform for all osteopathic medical students to voice their opinions and views. We have been and will continue to advance collaborative relationships that promote osteopathic medicine in the greater health care community. Throughout our chapters we have held blood drives, volunteered at local food banks, and held a fundraising talent show to donate to local businesses. Our main goals are to get more SOMA members involved with our fundraising events and increase awareness of SOMA within our communities.

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Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine (MU-COM)

Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine is located in the city of Indianapolis, IN. MU-COM is the first medical school to open in Indiana in the 110 years prior to its founding in 2013 and is the first osteopathic medical school in the state. MU-COM SOMA has been present since the school’s inception providing professional, social and civil opportunities to yield the finest osteopathic physicians. This past year at MU-COM, SOMA was focused on providing opportunities to the student body and introducing pre-med students to osteopathic medicine. The primary workshop that we hosted was the CV Workshop in which students gained insight into how to create a strong CV as they progress in their medical education. We are also encouraging future medical students through events such as ShaDO Day and the Boo Boo Clinic. Through ShaDO day we were given the opportunity to teach pre-med students in the community about Osteopathy and MU-COM as a whole. In partnership with our mentor’s club at MU-COM, our students were able to stop at various stations with their pre-med mentee such as the suturing station and the OMM station. We also put on social events and volunteer in our community throughout the school year.

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Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LU-COM)

Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine is located in Lynchburg, Virginia. LU-COM’s goal is to train Christ-centered physicians to educate and heal the community and beyond. Recently, SOMA and the ACOFP partnered together to host the first LU-COM Project Linus event. Volunteers made blankets for children in hospitals and orphanages around Roanoke, Virginia! We also attended Summer Leadership Meeting and OMED in order to strengthen our national presence. In the future, we would like to work more with our state societies as well.

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West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine (WVSOM)

The West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine is located in Lewisburg, West Virginia. Our SOMA students are committed to osteopathic representation within our community, region, and nation. Historically, our political advocacy has been paramount, which is why we have consistently welcomed a large number of students at DO Day on the Hill every year. We also have had numerous past SOMA leaders go on to become leaders at the national level. Recently, at the House of Delegates, WVSOM received the Northup Educator of the Year Award. Some chapter goals for this year include pre-medical mentorship, professional development workshops, and furthering community involvement.

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Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine (CUSOM)

Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine, located in the small town of Buies Creek, was established in 2013 as the first Osteopathic Medical School in North Carolina. CUSOM is truly designed with the local community in mind. Our mission is “to educate and prepare community–based osteopathic physicians in a Christian environment to care for the rural and underserved populations.” As an auto-enrolled campus, students can receive SOMA membership benefits for all four years of medical education. Our SOMA chapter is best known for our medical equipment fundraiser, annual Osteopathic Ball, and local service collaborations with our student-run Campbell University Community Care Clinic. In addition to our professional development and political action opportunities throughout the year, we hope to expand our reputation to include more regular service projects and socials that bring together students, residents, and physician mentors to network and serve our community.

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Medicine.campbell.edu

Lincoln Memorial University DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine – Harrogate (LMU-DCOM)

LMU-DCOM Harrogate campus is located in Harrogate, TN which is an hour and a half from the Knoxville, TN campus. Our SOMA Chapter strives to make an impact and increase the knowledge of osteopathic medicine on our campus, in the community, and beyond. This previous year, our chapter held monthly Social Medicine Program meetings which were discussion based meetings about general controversial topics or ethical issues. The chapter wrote a resolution to advocate to COCA to make the provision of health insurance to medical schools be a requirement for accreditation and was passed in the House of Delegates. We collected 120 items for homeless children and were donated to an organization called Family Promise of Greater Kingsport in Kingsport, TN. Our campus has a donor memorial garden honoring those who have donated their bodies for our education and we as a club were able to purchase flowers and assist another club on campus with cleaning up the garden. In celebration of National Osteopathic Medicine week, we had an Instagram takeover each day of the week and bought 30 dozen donuts to hand out to our first and second year classes. We have a strong relationship with our undergrad Pre-SOMA chapter at LMU and held a ShaDO Day event with a virtual tour, presentation, and student panel. In addition to the ShaDO Day event, we held an osteopathic medicine application cycle meeting. We are planning to be a very active chapter and have many goals for this upcoming year, so check out our Instagram and be on the lookout for our events!

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Lincoln Memorial University DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine – Knoxville (LMU-DCOM)

LMU-DCOM has worked hard this year to promote SOMA and osteopathic principles and practices on their campus. Events at their COM included: A food pantry event which provided food to over 700 people in the local community, an education event providing information about medical school and the osteopathic profession at a local underserved school, a resolution writing workshop, and writing resolutions for the SOMA House of Delegates, and fundraisers for Charity Miles and Doggie Dash 5K.

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Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine (DMU-COM)

Des Moines University (DMU) is located in the state capital of Iowa of the same name. Despite having many of our spring events canceled due to COVID-19, such as our St. Baldrick’s day, we have still had a great academic year. Our organization has been working hard to establish and maintain a vaccine administration program that we hope to expand upon next year. This year we hosted a flu vaccine administration training session, which allowed students to practice giving vaccinations while also receiving their flu shots. We have engaged with our local community by hosting an informational booth regarding vaccination and we demonstrated how to prepare healthy meals at our senior health fair.

Vaccine Administration Training: SOMA members hosted an event for vaccine administration training for DMU students. We watched a lecture on administration and then practiced giving shots to oranges. When we finished practicing we administered flu vaccines to our classmates under the supervision of a nurse.

What’s in a Doctor’s Bag: DO students visit elementary school classrooms and one family day at the YMCA to talk to them about what doctors do and show them the equipment we use. This is also an opportunity for them to ask questions to people in white coats in a setting that is familiar to them to help them feel comfortable asking questions about their health throughout their life.

Goals: After attending the Spring SOMA Convention and DO Day in Washington D.C., our chapter is super excited to get to work on resolutions that could affect health policy, physician training, or a multitude of other things! We also learned more about the Opioid Prevention Task Force and hope to host a narcan administration and education event.

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Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine (MWU-CCOM)

Midwestern University’s Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine is located in Downers Grove, IL. We have had a great academic year, with events on and off-campus for students and community members. Larger events include the “Stop the Crazy Talk” mental health campaign, Pre-SOMA outreach, DO Day on the Hill, Scholars de Salud, lunch talks, and a workshop on biases during Welcome Week. We also hosted an IL State Representative to discuss Healthcare for All and fundraised for St. Baldrick’s Foundation as well as Stop Asian Hate.

DO Day on the Hill: CCOM had an excellent turnout at DO Day on the Hill, with 23 students representing 10 different states. In total, our SOMA members attended 38 congressional meetings, advocating for policies that would increase access to care. With such a great attendance, we anticipate that next year even more CCOM students will participate in advocacy both on the Hill and in Illinois.

Winter Care Packages: In collaboration with the Student Association of Military Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons (SAMOPS), winter care packages were prepared by students for dozens of veterans and homeless persons in the Chicago area.

Scholars de Salud: SOMA student volunteers met with local high school students interested in the health professions in educational sessions designed to further their knowledge of and passion for healthcare. Specifically, we work with an underprivileged high school in Chicago, The Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy (IHSCA), educating Latino immigrants and their families.

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