Impact Your Alma Mater – Volunteer!
Alumni of the College of Medicine at Rockford play an important role in educating the next generation of medical students. Through volunteer faculty appointments, mentoring opportunities, networking events and other volunteer opportunities, UICOMR alumni can impact today’s medical students in positive ways.
Join the Faculty
In addition to the intrinsic value of imparting your wisdom to those following in your profession and adding a university title to your CV, a number of opportunities and benefits arise from being a part of the UICOMR faculty, including:
- A university e-mail address and staff ID that provide access to university resources, such as online and in-library resources from subscription databases and journal articles to checking out books
- Free online courses in a variety of topics through LinkedIn Learning.
- Discounts on travel, cell phones, car purchases, entertainment, computers and more
- Access to the new Glenn Netto Health and Wellness Center on the campus
- Invitations to present lectures through the well-publicized community lecture series
- Opportunities to pursue research grants and projects
A variety of opportunities exist for teaching medical students. The vast majority of our faculty have volunteer positions that may include the following:
- Hosting a clerkship at your facility
- Helping students with research
- Teaching a course on campus
- Acting as a preceptor for an away rotation where a student would work alongside you for several weeks
Any instructor who is involved in grading a medical student’s performance must be a part of the faculty. Both clinical and research tracks are available and include the following titles:
- Teaching Associate (residents and those who do not have a terminal degree may have this title)
- Instructor (must have a doctoral degree, such as M.D., Ph.D., DVM, etc.)
- Assistant Professor (must have a doctoral degree AND be board-certified)
- Associate Professor (must be Assistant Prof. for 5 years and then can apply for promotion)
- Professor (must be Associate Prof. for 5 years and then can apply for promotion)
If you’d like to learn more, check out Be Part Of Academic Medicine or contact Dr. Mitch King at 815-395-5610 or [email protected].
Full-time and paid positions may also be available. See our career site for current openings.
Robert Vickrey, MD ’02, is a forensic psychiatrist in Madison, Wis., and a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry for the College of Medicine. Here, he’s talking to medical students at a Psychiatry Interest Group meeting about what to expect during residency.
Interact with Medical Students
If a faculty appointment isn’t what you are looking for, but you’d be willing to help medical students in other ways, opportunities exist for you to make an impact on the medical student experience, including
- Attending a student specialty interest group meeting on campus
- Hosting a dinner for students to share insight about your specialty
- Giving an informational presentation or lecture on your area of expertise or interest
- Participating in admissions interviews for the incoming class of medical students
- Acting as a mentor to students in programs such as Urban Health Pipeline, Latino Medical Student Association, Rural Medicine Program, American Medical Women’s Association and others
- Attending networking events on campus and in the community
- Presenting health information or programs through Student Health to medical students
- Supporting programs that assist students through scholarships, awards and recognition
- Giving us your idea of how your time and talent could enhance the medical student experience
Alumni and community physicians talk one-on-one about their fields with medical students during speed specialty networking events.
For more information about these opportunities, contact Carrie Foust, director of communications, at 815-395-5601 or [email protected].