UAAMSA began in 1992 by a small, but
determined group of med students. Headed by Jim Lai and Yolanda
Wu, the group initially started as a social club gathering for ethnic
food nights. Jim served as UAAMSA's first president and Yolanda
it's second. Former Chair of Internal Medicine, Dr. Takadata
Yamada agreed to serve as the group's first advisor.
In 1994, a small contingent from
UAAMSA, headed by president Holly Oh represented the U of M at the very
first National APAMSA meeting in NYC. This was a year of
tremendous growth for UAAMSA both nationally and locally. Holly
and Dr. Yamada were the true guiding forces behind UAAMSA's expansion
into community service and cultural awareness. This was also the
year that gave birth to the original respite care program, creation of
the minority bone marrow drive, and establishment of the Annual UAAMSA
Faculty-Student reception. Eric Huang and his board further
developed these innovative programs, attracting newer and larger UAAMSA
membership.
The year 1995 also saw the
co-sponsorship of multi-cultural programs with LANAMA and BMA.
Unfortunately in 1996, UAAMSA's first faculty advisor, Dr. Yamada left
the university. He appointed current advisor Dr. H. David Humes
who then appointed junior advisors Dr. Arno Kumagai and Dr. Grace Su.
Along with '96-'97 president, Grace Eng UAAMSA saw the expansion of the
minority marrow drive to include participation from the undergraduate
black pre-med association, the Asian-American fraternity LPE, and
UAAMSA's law school counterpart, APALSA to its first spin-off group, the
Minority Marrow Donor Coalition--a group that (?now) functions
independently to encourage the Ann Arbor community to register with the
NMDP.
1996 was also the inception of the
first APA Health Month with activities all month focused on Minority
Marrow Donation awareness. Brian Chin's presidency '97-98 heralded
the creation of the hepatitis B project, further establishing UAAMSA as
one of the dominant forces of APAMSA both regionally in the Midwest and
nationally.
