Nationally, women are underrepresented among physician-scientists, MD-PhD students and MD-PhD applicants. Our program is committed to organizing and promoting events and resources that support women MD-PhD and VMD-PhD students around issues that are important to women and/or may affect women differently than men. We also help women students and applicants connect with female role models among physician-scientist faculty at Penn. In addition, the program recognizes that “women’s issues” often affect men as well, and that both men and women are invested in working to change gender inequality. The Association of Women Student MD-PhDs (AWSM) is a student-driven organization that seeks to connect students across different classes with programs centering on these goals of recruitment, community building, scientific mentoring, and professional career development.