In October 2024, at the Southern Medical Association’s (SMA) Annual Scientific Assembly in Atlanta, GA., four ACOM students were awarded second place in their SMArt Bowl competition.

This Jeopardy-style academic competition consisted of teams of four medical students and/or residents from various programs. The SMA website describes the SMArt Bowl as “a fun-filled and adrenaline-fueled in-person competition to compete and test you and your team’s medical knowledge”.

The team of ACOM students consisted of Alison Hollenbaugh, Stephanie Gonzalez, Julee Reitzel, and Ross Thompson. They secured second place over teams made up of students from PCOM-GA and a group of residents, before narrowly losing in “Final Jeopardy”, to a talented group of international medicine residents. Notably, the ACOM team actually had the highest point total going into Final Jeopardy.

The students are proud of their performance and hope to compete again in the 2025 competition, later this year.