Pre-Clerkship Programs & Student Organizations

First and second-year students can participate in a variety of programs and interest groups to prepare for family medicine and primary care careers.

AMP: Action and Mentorship Project

AMP or the Action and Mentorship Project is a student-led club that works directly with health centers within the community. With the help of an attending physician, students staff a blood pressure clinic focused on hypertension screening, management, and education. The goal of these clinics is to help improve patient outcomes as well as help to meet health center-wide quality metrics in regard to blood pressure goals. Student volunteers play an active role in measuring blood pressure and providing one-on-one counseling on lifestyle modifications such as diet, exercise, and medication adherence. Additionally, students learn how to run quality reports in the medical record to identify patients that are not meeting blood pressure goals and who would benefit from a blood pressure check. Through participation in a variety of clinic sessions, students gain valuable hands-on clinical experience while developing skills in patient communication, preventive care, and chronic disease management. The club is particularly committed to serving underserved and high-risk populations, working to reduce health disparities and improve access to care. By combining service, education, and advocacy, the organization fosters both meaningful community impact and the professional growth of its members.

Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG)

The Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine is part of a national network of family medicine interest groups created with the purpose of increasing awareness and interest in family medicine, as well as helping anyone interested in pursuing a career in family medicine. FMIG activities are open to non-member students so that all medical students can learn about family medicine. 

Throughout the year, FMIG hosts panels, guest speakers, workshops, and other opportunities to learn more about the diverse field of family medicine. FMIG leads a primary care week “speed dating” event in collaboration with internal medicine and pediatrics interest groups each year.  FMIG also assists students seeking residencies in Family Medicine, helps support students attending state and national conventions, and fosters strong relationships with Family Medicine faculty. 

If you are a BU medical student interested in joining the Family Medicine Interest Group, please contact one of your FMIG student co-leaders at fmig@bu.edu, the Family Medicine Student Coordinator Madison Boschulte at mboschul@bu.edu, or the FMIG Faculty Advisor Dr. Claire Lyons at Claire.lyons@bmc.org. 

Sports Medicine Interest Group

The Sports Medicine Interest Group aims to introduce students to the field of sports medicine through informative presentations, hands-on workshop sessions, and shadowing opportunities. In addition, students will be able to make valuable connections with current sports medicine physicians and fellow students who are also interested in this field, allowing for open discussions about sports medicine and the various paths one can take to find their place in this amazing field.

Healer’s Art

The Healer’s Art is a spring semester enrichment course directed towards first- and second-year medical students that addresses the human dimension of medicine. Major themes of the course include:

• Sustaining idealism and altruism
• Medicine as a calling
• Cultivating compassion
• Healing loss
• Learning tools to prevent stress and burnout

The Healer’s Art is now offered at 70 medical schools throughout North America and the world. We hope you enjoy this course as much as the faculty enjoys offering it.  If you are interested in participating in the program or have any questions, you may contact the Family Medicine Student Coordinator Madison Boschulte at mboschul@bu.edu or the Course Director, Dr. Nidhi Lal at Nidhi.lal@bmc.org.

Readings, Assignments, Grading and Academic Credit
There are no required readings or assignments for this course. Small group discussions led by practicing physicians, experiential exercises, and personal reflection comprise 90% of the course with 10% didactic. You will receive the book Kitchen Table Wisdom as a gift, which can be for your enjoyment and inspiration now and for the rest of your career. Following the completion of the course, a letter acknowledging your participation in Healer’s Art will be sent to the Dean of Student Affairs to be placed in your official file.

What recent students are saying about the course: 

• “My small group experience in Healer’s Art was separate from my other medical school small groups as it allowed me to discuss topics and hear perspectives about real experiences of grief, loss, and healing, not often discussed.”
• “I would recommend this course to my entire student body as I feel it allowed me to rediscover my reason for choosing medicine. It can get very easy to get stuck in the cycle of studying and exams and seeing every patient/person as a group of symptoms and tests leading to a diagnosis, but Healer’s Art really brought the human connection back to medicine for me.”
• “I signed up for this course because I have experienced burnout and self-doubt at different points in my educational experience and I thought this would be a good opportunity to connect with peers and mentors who have experienced the same thing but still want to push through.”
• “I really liked my small group experience as we had a diverse pool of participants ranging from M1s, M4s, PhD, residents, nurses, and MDs, which helped to navigate the
• conversation and understand different perspectives at different points in our professional life. It was nice to have a space where our titles and healthcare hierarchy didn’t interfere with the relationship that we built during the course.”
• “The most valuable thing that I learned from Healer’s Art is continuing to have hope for the unknown. We all agreed that when we go through hard situations such as grief, imposter syndrome, burnout, and/or other personal experiences, it all contributes to the way in which we conduct our healthcare service. I learned that everyone faces these challenging situations and that maintaining a posture of humility and curiosity is key not only for patient encounters but also for building relationships and navigating our professional life.”