The Association for Academic Psychiatry (AAP) was able to sponsor a medical student essay contest for the first time in 2005. With support from the Gold Foundation, the On Becoming a Doctor contest was launched with an initial theme of "The Art of Communication in Psychiatry: Connecting with the Patient." It is hoped that this will become an annual event for the AAP, kindling greater interest in academia among medical students with an early commitment to psychiatry.
The contest was a great success, with first entries received only 48 hours after the initial announcement. In all, 18 students from 11 states and provinces spanning the United States and Canada submitted their work before the deadline. A select group of judges from within the AAP reviewed each composition in blinded fashion and provided feedback on various aspects of the work. This critique was translated into a numerical score, leading to the winning essay and three runners-up.
The 2005 AAP On Becoming a Doctor Essay Contest winner is Veronica Hackethal, a student at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. Veronica presented her essay, "Acoustics," at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Academic Psychiatry in Chicago on September 30, 2005. Her attendance at the meeting was supported by a generous grant from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, a foundation with the goal of advancing humanism in medicine and perpetuating the tradition of the caring doctor.