Alpha Omega Alpha, Vertical File

Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) is a national medical honor society that recognizes scholarship and leadership in medicine and related fields. It is composed of medical men and women, in medical schools in North America who show promise for attaining professional leadership, notable physicians in practice, and others who have gained unusual recognition in fields related to medicine. The original chapter was founded in 1902 by William W. Root, then a junior in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago, medical department of the University of Illinois.

Root founded the organization as a protest against 'a condition which associated the name medical student with rowdyism, boorishness, immorality, and low educational ideals.' Root and his fellow medical students formed a society that would foster honesty and formulate higher ideals of scholastic achievement.

The Washington University Chapter, called the Alpha of Missouri, founded in 1905, was the seventh chapter. The founding members of AOA at the medical school saw the need for a higher educational standard before the 1910 Flexner report changed the department and American medical education as a whole. The Washington University Medical Department raised its standards for entrance to the medical school, hired full time faculty, reformed the curriculum, and built a new medical campus with numerous hospitals on site as partners in medical education.

As the negative image of the medical student changed, the society continued to foster and honor student scholastic achievement at Washington University. The activities for members changed over the years but included initiation with an AOA membership key and certificate, annual banquets and lectures, and an AOA Book Prize still given each year at commencement for outstanding scholarship (News from the Medical School, Washington University, press release, March 10, 1954; Washington University School of Medicine Bulletin online, accessed 3/17/2006; Online Finding Aid to the Alpha Omega Alpha Archives, 1894-1968, at the National Library of Medicine, accessed 8/11/2006).