Public health professionals work to enhance the health of populations and communities. A campus event this Thursday, Sept. 15, starting at 5 p.m. in the Student Education Center, is designed to help build a community of people interested in public health: Des Moines University’s Master of Public Health Student Club will host a Networking Night for DMU students in all programs who are interested in public health. With special guest DMU President Angela Walker Franklin, Ph.D., the event will be a wonderful opportunity for students to meet each other, learn about the profession and related campus organizations, and interact with faculty and members of the Iowa Public Health Association and American Public Health Association.

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Back in the 1990s, when medical educators and residency program directors expressed the need to recognize internship and residency applicants with both outstanding clinical and interpersonal skills, the Arnold P. Gold Foundation listened. That led to the creation of the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS), which honors select medical students, residents, role-model physician teachers and others for “demonstrated excellence in clinical care, leadership, compassion and dedication to service” – in a word, humanism.

Des Moines University has an entire department devoted to teaching students how to care for patients with compassion, ethics and leadership. And in 2007, the University became one of 72 of the nation’s more than 160 medical schools to have a GHHS chapter.

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Here in Des Moines we are so lucky to have such a thriving creative and artistic community and the culmination of of this group of people happens annually at the Des Moines Arts Festival. This year’s events start Friday and run through Sunday.

The Des Moines Arts Festival features 185 of the nation’s top professional artists and 22 emerging Iowa artists in a juried exhibition of artwork in 14 mediums. Providing guests with the unique opportunity to meet artists from around the world and purchase their artwork, the Des Moines Arts Festival has become a signature event for the community.

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Like most osteopathic medical schools, Des Moines University participates in a national volunteer recognition program called T.O.U.C.H. I completely forgot what that acronym actually stands for, but the idea is that T.O.U.C.H. is a system designed to reward students who go above and beyond the requirements of their curriculum and use their time in medical school to impact their community for the better. Those who conduct more than 50 hours of volunteer service receive a silver pin and a certificate of recognition, while those who achieve more than 100 are given the “Gold” equivalent.  Now, I’m writing about this program for two reasons: 1) I had no idea this even existed before coming to DMU and would have liked to have gotten a jump on it, and 2) to extol the virtues of DMU in terms of opportunities for T.O.U.C.H.

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While the new class of talented and eager P.A. students has already begun their first year at DMU, we D.O. students are enjoying a much needed break in our training as our summer gets into full swing.  As we all step out into the real world for the first time in months (on the second try – we had forgotten how garish daylight could be), we reflect on all the joyous possibilities that await us in a world without exams or SPALs*…at least for a few weeks more.

Ahh, it's time to take a break. For some DMU students, anyway.

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Like a lot of DMU students and alumni, Amy Hynek is multi-talented: In addition to earning her D.O. degree in 2010, she and members of her family – father Bill, sister Amanda and brother Joe, with crew support by mom Angie – make up the high-energy, highly musical band Pumptown.

Amy plays guitar, drums (she collects them), mandolin and more in the group, which performs original songs in an eclectic mix of folk rock, rock, pop, country, “island country” and polka. You can read all about the group in a past issue of DMU Magazine.

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