Medical students host chili cook-off to raise money for match day events

Mercer University’s School of Medicine will be cooking up success as they raise money during their chili cook-off.
The Medical School Chili Cook-off will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 23.
The event will raise funds for the much anticipated match day at the medical school as well as the Crescent House.
The cook-off is an annual event held by medical students. This year, the class of 2016 will be selling chili to raise money for match day.
Match day is an important day for medical school students, as it is the day that the matches between students and hospitals for residency are announced.
The time leading up to match day, students interview with various hospitals and rank them in order of preference. The hospitals also rank the students.
On match day, the pairings of students to hospitals are announced. The anticipation and knowledge of discovering where the students will be placed is something that is held to a high importance.
“Match day determines where you will live for the next few years and possibly the rest of your life.” said Medical School Class of 2016 Vice President Mudit Chowdhary. “It’s a big deal.”
The money raised by the chili cook-off will help make match day a special event for all who attend the event.
Medical students await their match in the presence of their professors, peers and families as all are invited to the event. The Medical School Chili Cook-off will be held on Wednesday January 23, 2013. The event will raise funds for the Match Day at the medical school as well as the Crescent House.
It is an annual event held by students at the Medical school. This year, the class of 2016 will be selling chili to raise money for match day. Match day is the day that the matches between students and hospitals for residency are announced.
Previous to Match Day, students interview with various hospitals and rank them in order of preference. The hospitals also rank the students. On Match
Day, the pairings of students to hospitals are announced. Match Day is a very big deal for the students. “Match day determines where you will live for the next few years and possibly the rest of your life,” said Medical School Class of 2016 Vice President Mudit Chowdhary. “It is a big deal.”
The money raised by the Chili Cook-off will help make Match Day a special event for everyone involved in the lives of the medical school students. Parents and faculty all come for the event.“It’s nice for us to have our faculty and family involved in the day” stated Chowdhary.
In addition to raising funds for Match Day, the Chili Cook-off will support The Crescent House, a local charity devoted to helping children who have been victims of sexual abuse. The Crescent House is part of the Children’s Hospital at the Medical Center of Central Georgia. The House focuses on the child and provides advocacy and support to children who have been sexually abused.
There have been a couple changes in the event since previous years. Though the class of 2016 wanted to uphold the Mercer tradition of hosting the Chili Cook-off, they did not want to follow the exact same model of previous years.
This year, there was no entry fee for those who wanted to provide chili. This plan is different than the one where entrants would pay a small fee in addition to making chili for the event.
Everyone will receive a small cup of chili from each station to sample the different flavors. By eliminating the cost for the contributors, they got more people to participate by bringing chili. So far, there are around nine student teams, a team from the Crescent House, a few faculty teams, and one premed entrant. Total there are around 13 participants bringing chili to the event.
Also, in the past money from the event has gone to the Ronald McDonald house.
“With the recent violent events in India, we figured this would be a good charity to support” said Chowdhary, explaining the reasons for changing the charity receiving the money. In addition to the donation, the event will provide publicity for the Crescent House.