The AΩA Stories Award celebrates the important role narratives play in medical education. It is open to medical students enrolled at institutions with an active AΩA chapter who have completed at least three months of clinical clerkship experience by the submission deadline (typically M3/M4 at time of submission).
Medical students may reflect on experiences that have shaped their understanding of service, compassion, professionalism, and the human dimensions of medicine. Through narrative writing, participants explore what it means to embody AΩA’s motto: “Be worthy to serve the suffering.”
Important Dates
Deadline for submission
Winners will be annouced
The Award
Up to 30 narratives will be selected for an award of $500. Some may be selected for publication by AΩA.
Eligibility
Authors do not need to be members of AΩA, but they do need to be enrolled in medical schools that have an active AΩA Chapter. Only one entry may be permitted per student.
Requirements
- Narratives must be the work of a single author and must be original work. The narrative must not be offered to, or published by, any other journal or entered in any other contest prior to submission or during the selection process.
- The narrative must be between 500 and 1,500 words, and be formatted with a 12-point type and double-spaced.
- Narratives must protect patient privacy and confidentiality. Authors should avoid including identifying information and should modify details as necessary while preserving the integrity of the story. Student authors must obtain and provide written permission from the patient or the patient’s family if any identifying information is contained in the story.
- Submissions should be narrative prose in the form of reflective essays or personal essays. Poetry and fiction are not eligible.
- Authors must be the sole creators of the submitted narrative. Generative AI tools may be used for limited editorial assistance (e.g. grammar, spelling, or organization), but may not be used to generate substantive narrative content, reflections, interpretations, or storytelling. Authors must provide an AI statement on the cover page that describes whether artificial intelligence tools were used, and if so, providing a description of how they were used in the production of the essay. All AI prompts should be included in an appendix to the essay.
- The narrative should include a title page that includes the following information: Title, Author, Author’s Institution, current mailing and email addresses, permanent email address (that would be used after author’s graduation from medical school), cell phone contact information, and artificial intelligence attestation statement (see #5 above).
- Judges will evaluate each narrative based on the following criteria:
- reflection and insight
- relevance to AΩA’s motto (“Be Worthy to Serve the Suffering”)
- authenticity and originality
- quality of writing
- contribution to understanding the human experience of medicine.
- Narratives that are not selected as award recipients may be submitted to other contests/publications after the winners are announced on April 16, 2027.