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American Medical Women’s Association supports pre-med students

By providing members with community service opportunities and career development mentors, the AMWA hopes it can help support students hoping to become medical professionals. | Photo courtesy of AMWA

The American Medical Women’s Association at UH is an organization dedicated to empowering women in the medical field. By providing members with community service opportunities and career development mentors, the AMWA aims to help support students along their journey toward becoming medical professionals. 

Since its founding in 2014, the AMWA has provided countless students with the necessary resources to overcome the academic challenges of being a pre-med student. AMWA co-president and biomedical engineering major Anaga Ajoy said AMWA has helped develop a collaborative environment among pre-med students. 

“I know pre-med has like a reputation for being very like cutthroat and competitive,” Ajoy said. “I feel like this organization is much different than that; we’re all always trying to help each other out. It’s very much a community.” 

In addition to catering to students studying medicine, AMWA also prioritizes women’s advocacy. The organization maintains a subcommittee dedicated to advocating on behalf of female students.  

“In my junior year, I became the Women’s Advocacy Committee Chair, which is basically a committee within AMWA, where I was focused on helping women’s issues specifically, and not just like medical issues,” Ajoy said. 

AMWA is a relatively large organization with around 140-150 members. In such a large organization, making time for every member can be challenging, but it’s something Ajoy strives for. 

“So that means that it’s really hard to be very personal with every single person just because of the sheer size,” Ajoy said. “With that being said, we’re not grouped up by ourselves or anything. We make an effort to talk to everyone.” 

Ajoy is a senior in her last semester at UH. With graduation just a few months away, Ajoy took time to reflect on her involvement with AMWA. Aside from her own personal growth, Ajoy said seeing the impact AMWA has had on its members continues to be a point of pride. 

“As a freshman, I was very overwhelmed with everything I could do to graduate and basically go into medical school and things like that,” Ajoy said. “But AMWA definitely gave me a very clear-cut path. Watching the members grow and become more accomplished and more successful is very rewarding.” 

Ajoy, nearing the end of her journey with AMWA, said all that’s left now is to give back however she can. 

“I gave a lot of my college undergraduate years to this org. And it’s one of the biggest impacts that it has had on my life, so I really appreciate it,” Ajoy said. “I want to give back in every way possible.” 

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