2026 AMSA HEART-IM & Reproductive Justice Elective Application

2026 AMSA HEART-IM & Reproductive Justice Elective Application

The AMSA Humanistic Elective in Activism, Reflective Transformation, and Integrative Medicine (HEART-IM) provides up to twenty-five (25) third-year and fourth-year medical students with a unique and rewarding way to conclude their medical school careers and prepare for their future work as healer-physicians.

For 2026, we are excited to bring you the HEART-IM program in collaboration with the AMSA Reproductive Health Project, to offer a 4-week, in-person elective focusing on the interconnections between integrative medicine, cultural somatics, and the movements for reproductive health, rights, and justice (HEART-IM/RJ). This elective is designed to support physicians-in-training in making sense of and co-creating meaningful responses to this particular moment of time in which bodily autonomy, agency, and other human rights are threatened by authoritarian and fascist political movements.

HEART-IM/RJ will take place Sunday, March 29 - Saturday, April 25, 2026 at the Quaker Center in Ben Lomond, CA.

Applicants should have a strong interest in and curiosity about integrative medicine, cultural somatics, justice-making, and exploring paths of social transformation through the Reproductive Justice framework leading to healing, thriving, and flourishing for all.

Applications must be submitted no later than Monday, December 15, 2025.

Please provide some information about you!

First Name*

Last Name*

Preferred Email Address*

Preferred Phone Number*

Phone

AMSA and/or MSFC Membership Type*

Multiple options can be selected.

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Gender Identity/ies*

Multiple options can be selected.

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Sexual Idientity/ies*

Multpile options can be selected.

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Pronouns Used*

Multiple options can be selected.

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Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Identities*

Multiple options can be selected.

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Your medical school*

Please enter your school's official (formal) name; do not abbreviate.

Year in School*

Please confirm that during the 2025-26 academic year, you will be a fourth year medical student (M4).

Select or enter value

Anticipated Specialty*

What speciality/ies are you planning or considering applying to for your residency training?

Confirm your availability to participate*

Will you be available to participate in the in-person elective at the Quaker Center in Ben Lomond, CA for the entire duration of 3/29/2026 - 4/25/2026?

Select

Required Short Answer Reflections (100-200 words)

Question 1*

What are your intests in and experiences with integrative medicine, holistic medicine, and/or whole-person care? And how does this relate to what you have noticed/perceived about modern western medicine's views of, attitudes about, and approaches toward the human body, human embodiment, and difference/variation in people?

Question 2*

Name a personal quality or lived experience that you feel will contribute to the diversity of the unique community at HEART-IM.

Question 3*

Reflecting on your own embodied "positionality," how do you think about and relate to socio-political power? For example, how do different aspects of your identity intersect with access to power/privilege or with systematic exclusion/oppression? If you are a person racialized as white, please include a reflection on your relation to whiteness and white supremacy, in whatever way you understand this. If you are a person who is male/masc, please also include a reflection on your relation to maleness, masculinity, and (cis-hetero-)patriarchy, in whatever way you understand this.

Question 4*

Comment on an experience you had (or would like to have) in advocacy or activism regarding medicine, medical education, domestic or international policy, social change or any other area that interests you. What interests, aspirations, or curiosities do you have for yourself in relation to the movement(s) for human rights and social justice - including reproductive health, rights, and justice?

Long Answer Reflections (200-300 words)

Please respond to ONE of the following two prompts.

Reflection 1

Please share why you feel drawn to participate in the AMSA HEART-IM and Reproductive Justice elective (e.g. How might four weeks of personal reflection serve you at this time? What do you expect to address within yourself during these weeks of personal reflection? What do you expect from the HEART community? What do you hope to come away with?)

Reflection 2

Please share your reflections on the practice of medicine as a practice of care, within a framework of meaning-making that resonates with you. How do you think about and connect the practice of medicine with spiritual, psychological, sociological, epistemological, and/or teleological frameworks of meaning-making?

Today's Date*

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