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Awards & Supports
The Alumni Association has established five awards for PA students attending the Center for Physician Assistant Studies at Albany Medical College. Funds are generated from alumni contributions, association activities and through an endowment fund with the Hudson Valley Community College Foundation.
Award at completion of didactic studies, to a PA student currently in the Class of 2009, is substantially based on the content of an essay with the subject of:
"One vision of a progressive PA Alumni Association"
Candidate must be a full-time, matriculated student with a minimum 2.5 GPA, having completed fourth term requirements and will continue in good standing with the Center for Physician Assistant Studies to be eligible. Awarding will occur at the annual "CME Day" conference at the Bulmer Technology Center of HVCC on June 12th.
Applicants should assemble this essay, plus a brief cover letter, for the PA Alumni Association Board of Directors. Submit these two items by June 8th via electronic mail to Alumni Board or via paper to Ms. Green at the Center for PA Studies in the Hun Building, where the alumni have legal offices as a not-for-profit corporation, in Albany. Deadline for the application for this award is June 8th, 2008.
Master's prepared graduating PA students are eligible for four awards provided by the Alumni Association:
The Freitag Award recognizes two Physician Assistants who demonstrated academic excellence in their Master's project.
Dr. Julia Freitag facilitated legislation that established physician assistant education in New York State. Theses awards honor her memory by denoting PA student excellence. She was instrumental in establishing Albany's original PA Program.
The Cooper Award is given in recognition of Stuart Cooper, MD, the first medical director of the Physician Assistant Program, which was jointly administered between Albany Medical College and the Hudson Valley Community College. His inaugural policies established one of the oldest and most respected PA programs in New York State. The Cooper Award is for academic excellence in the didactic phase of education at the Center for Physician Assistant Studies.
The Gold Award honors an attorney who lectured many PA graduates in health law and provided counsel to Albany's Physician Assistant Program in its formative years. He offered pro-bono legal assistance to the PA Alumni Association with complex incorporation affidavits to multiple NY State Departments, as a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Active in very many professional and community organizations, Mr. Gold was a true friend of PAs in Albany. This award is given for academic excellence in the clinical phase of PA education.
The Professionalism Award is given in recognition of the Physician Assistant who demonstrated exemplary and high levels of professionalism throughout the years of training at the Albany Medical College Center for Physician Assistant Studies.
Alumni reunions at the national AAPA conventions are encouraged via subsidies to PA students who choose to travel as well to these conventions. Criteria for supporting student travel includes an "open house," publicized at the convention site, facilitating alumni meetings. Details are enumerated in early springtime.
Alumni gifts of the future should be considered by arranging a memorial gift for PA students deserving of financial assistance. Historically, the Albany-Hudson Valley PA Program, under the auspices of the NY State University system, had offered powerful career opportunites to clinically savvy clinicians of limited financial means.
Consistent with our PA heritage, a long-term goal of the PA Alumni Association involves supporting deserving students in PA Masters' studies, in true scholarship arrangement. In the meantime, the student awards described above will continue.
Gifts made through a will can potentially provide tremendous assistance for students. Obviously, professional advice on the tax benefits of making such a bequest is crucial.
See Wills & Bequests for introductory information. But regardless of tax implications, this form of philanthropy lets you leave a profound and lasting legacy, offering benefits in personal satisfaction and supporting scholarship for future Physician Assistants.
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