Students Accepted to National Family Medicine Leadership Program

Two Northeast Ohio Medical University College of Medicine students have been selected to attend the 2020 American Academy of Family Physicians Family Medicine Leads (FML) Emerging Leader Institute.

Every year, the American Academy of Family Physicians welcomes just 30 residents and students from across the United States to take part in the Institute.

Jacob Brock and Varun Gopinath, both second-year College of Medicine students, were recently awarded the 2020 AAFP Foundation FML Emerging Leader Institute Scholarship.

Gopinath says he applied to the Institute, “as it was an appropriate bridge between the physician I want to become and my previous background in urban education and public health. The Emerging Leader Institute will allow me to tie my desire to focus on the needs of underserved communities in Cleveland while learning how to apply my medical knowledge as physician leader.”

Brock, a member of NEOMED’s Rural Medical Education (RMED) Pathway, and Gopinath, a member of the NEOMED-Cleveland State University Partnership for Urban Health, are both excited to meet the other 28 program participants and learn about family medicine.

“I look forward to getting to know the stories of other people involved and collaborating with them. The constant book work of our first and second years can be discouraging, so it is always refreshing to both meet other students with the same passion for family medicine, as well as work with experienced physicians. Moreover, I’m excited to work on projects that involve some of my interests, like rural and preventative medicine,” says Brock.

Brock and Gopinath, along with their FML Emerging Leader Institute peers, will have the opportunity to attend the annual AAFP National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students, in Kansas City, Missouri, participate in leadership workshops and hold a project management session at AAFP National Headquarters in Leawood, Kansas.

The 2020 FML Emerging Leader Institute is set to take place July 30-August 2.