One of the most exciting aspects of the new Alpert Medical School building is that it provides physical space for the implementation of an academy system. These smaller learning communities provide students with a home base across all four years of their medical education and allows for much more interaction with faculty and other advisers.

Each academy will have two full-time staff to direct and organize activities within and among the communities. Each academy will also have three to four faculty advisers. Students are assigned to one of three academies to ensure an even distribution of characteristics such as gender, route of admission, and ethnicity. Lectures and small group assignments will be based on the entire class, but anatomy will use the academy structure to create lab groupings in the three dissecting suites.

Alpert Medical School has chosen to implement an academy system
• to enhance connectivity and collaboration
• to foster and model professionalism
• to promote student wellness.

Career Advising

Career, personal, and academic advising will all take place within a student's academy. Each academy will sponsor
one student-driven wellness activity in the year, such as a 5K run or yoga and meditation retreat. Career advising, which is built on the AAMC-based Careers in Medicine Program, begins in Year 1 with a series of specialty-specific panels designed to provide information early in medical training. Career advising will continue through Year 2, with a combination of Doctoring Course activities and academy-specific initiatives. In Year 3, students will be assigned a faculty member in his or her specialty of interest; this faculty member will mentor the student through the residency match process.