Requirements and Criteria

Students must complete all mandatory activities to graduate with Service Distinction.

Mandatory Activities

  1. Clinical Experience with an Underserved, Marginalized or Rural Population: Choose two of the following for this requirement:
    • MECO or Proteus summer experience
    • M1 summer clinical research project focused on rural/underserved communities/populations
    • Core Year Family Medicine rotation at a rural/underserved site
    • M4 elective clinical rotation at an approved underserved site
  2. Clinical Volunteer Experience: A minimum of 48 hours of volunteer experiences. 24 hours must be in a community-based clinic setting.
    • University of Iowa's Mobile Clinic / Iowa City Free Medical Clinic​ 
      • Committee or Board work may fulfill up to 12 hours with approval. 
    • Other clinical volunteering with relevant patient populations (contact director for more information about what experiences count)
    • Non-clinical volunteering with relevant communities/populations (contact director for more information about what experiences count)
  3. Elective Experiences: Complete two electives (must meet college elective requirements). Options include:
    1. Global Program Elective (course, off-campus, domestic or international experience)
    2. Community Health Outreach Elective (CHO 1 + CHO 2)
    3. Other electives as approved by SDT Council. 2024-25 academic year options:
      • Clinical Skills for Responding to Sexual Violence
      • Reproductive and Gynecological Health Seminar
  4. Capstone Project: A project that includes a scholarly proposal, paper, and presentation.
  5. Mentor Meetings: Students must identify a faculty mentor by May 1st of the M2 year. Once identified, students meet with their mentor at least once per semester.
  6. Yearly Reflections: Students submit brief narritive summaries of their service-related year in review and goals for the year ahead.

Application Information

To apply to the Service Distinction Track, please select the 'Enroll' link in the lefthand menu. Upon submission, the SDT Director will be notified and will contact you to set up an individual meeting.

All students are encouraged to contact the SDT Director (Samantha-Ziemba@uiowa.edu) for more information before applying.

Applications are due by the end of the M1 academic year.

Curriculum