Alpha Omega Alpha
Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) is a National Honor Society established in 1902 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago by a group of medical students headed by William Webster Root. Their goal was the creation of a society that would foster honesty and formulate higher ideals of scholastic achievement. The letters AOA represent the first letters of a Greek motto which means “Worthy to serve the suffering.”
Currently there are 124 active chapters in the United States and Canada, including the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine.
Membership in AOA is a distinction for medical students that is recognized and honored by all in the profession. Members are selected by the medical school chapter itself, and to be eligible, a student must be in the upper twenty-five percent of the class. No more than one-sixth of the number of students expected to graduate may be elected to membership.
Because of the value of AOA membership to students who are in the process of applying for residencies, our local chapter seeks to have members elected in time to have that distinction reflected in students’ résumés.