Bridging the Military and Medical Worlds: EMDP2 Alumni Association

The Enlisted to Medical Degree Preparatory Program Alumni Association is more than a gathering of former students; it is the embodiment of a shared journey. Each of us began not in lecture halls or clinical rotations, but in the ranks of America’s enlisted corps, where the first lessons of discipline, resilience, and sacrifice were etched into our character. From those foundations we entered EMDP2, not as an escape from our service, but as a continuation of it, refined and redirected toward the healing professions.

Our Association exists to preserve this unique narrative. We are at once soldiers and scholars; inheritors of two demanding traditions whose union defines our identity. We aim to cultivate bonds that transcend class year or commissioning date, offering mentorship to those still on the path and fellowship to those who now practice medicine in the varied corners of the Armed Forces and beyond.

In an era when the virtues of patience, empathy, and civility are increasingly rare, we seek to model a better way. The physician’s vocation demands not only technical mastery but also a deep reverence for the dignity of every human being. The soldier’s calling requires loyalty, courage, and the willingness to place the welfare of others above one’s own. Together these twin identities compel us to lead lives of consequence, marked by humility, service, and integrity.

The Alumni Association is committed to three pillars: sustaining a lifelong network of camaraderie among graduates, fostering professional and academic excellence in military medicine, and upholding the moral seriousness of our dual vocation as healers and defenders. Through mentorship, scholarship, and shared remembrance, we endeavor to pass down the lessons of our unique journey to those who follow, ensuring that the flame of service is never extinguished.

Alcibiades Being Taught by Socrates (1776) by François-André Vincent

We are not simply alumni of a program; we are co-authors of a legacy. A legacy that affirms that service does not end with a commission nor with a medical degree, but is a lifelong endeavor to our patients, our comrades, our nation, and to one another.