Congratulations on your status as a PA student. As you can imagine, a very bright future awaits you, especially if you have an interest in the hottest area of PA Practice: SURGERY (AAPA News, 11/01). AASPA is here to serve the unique needs of PA students interested in surgery/trauma, or critical care!

To gain a broad knowledge of the profession, we would suggest that you subscribe to our newsletter: Sutureline, as well as our official journal Surgical Physician Assistant. When you next visit your college bookstore or library, we suggest that you read the following texts: Physician Assistants in American Medicine (by Hooker and Cawley), A Kernel in the Pod (by J.M. Jones), Opportunities in Physician Assistant Careers (by Sacks).

We are planning to begin a "Mentoring Program" for pre-PA students. The "mentors" will be student members of the AASPA and will be matched with pre-PA applicants to offer advice and help with the application process and act as a source of up-to-date information on the requirements of the surgical PA profession. Opportunites for PA students to be matched with Fellow PAs is also in development.The coordinator of this program is Gerald Simons, the Immediate Past President.

What can the PA student do to improve their chances of landing a sweet PA Post-graduate training position, or that high paying job in surgery? Follow out pointers below:

1. As an AASPA student-member, you can list that on your resume. This has been proved to help support your interest in surgery.
    
2. As an AASPA student member, you can have your resume reviewed for FREE. The coordinator of our resume review service is Gerald Simons, Immediate Past President. Non-student members can also have their resume reviewed by our surgical team for a fee of $60. Contact the AASPA office for more information.
   
   
3. Apply for a student scholarship! Visit our scholarship section! As you can imagine, AASPA scholarship award winner is very powerful on a resume.
    
4. Attend a AASPA CME Meeting. It also is a great resume builder, and is an outstanding place to make job leads.
    
5. Get involved. There are many opportunities to participate in AASPA activities. Why not serve your profession, while making new friends and job leads? Contact one of our two student directors (please visit the leadership section of the site).
    
6. AASPA Student members are welcome to contact the leadership for advice, pointers, etc. We are here for you!
    
7. If you have not figured it out already, become an AASPA Member-Today!