Dr. John Barker, an American citizen, whose mother is Argentine, spent his childhood in Santa Barbara California, USA and after attending high school and a few years of University there attended Medical School at the National University of Cordoba (UNC) in Argentina. Upon graduating from UNC in 1984, he won a 2-year scholarship to do graduate research at Heidelberg University in Germany and then returned to the USA where he began his academic career at the University in Louisville, USA.

Recognizing the importance of his experience studying medicine in Cordoba, he wanted to do something to allow other students to experience the same, and also wanted to do something to give back to the University in Cordoba, that had given him so much. With this in mind he established a scholarship program to give Argentine medical students the opportunity to travel abroad and experience how medicine is practiced outside of Argentina. To make sure that the scholarships were awarded fairly, based on academic ability, he contacted his former Professor of Surgery, Dr. José Norberto Allende, and asked him to help develop a fair and transparent method for awarding these scholarships.

At the time Dr. Allende was the Dean of the UNC Medical School, and together with a colleague, Dr. Pedro Saracho-Cornet, they established an exam-based competition to awarded scholarships. Through this exam they sought to recognize and celebrate academic achievement. Drs. Allende and Saracho-Cornet recruited UNC faculty who taught subjects in the first 3 years of medical school (Basic Science Cycle), and in 1991 established an annual event they named Academic Olympics for Medical Students (AOMS). Students who had completed their first 3 years of medical studies, and who had maintained an overall grade point average above 7, were eligible to participate. For more information on the original AOMS requirements see the following link: link (http://oanem.org/archivos/RHCD-616.pdf).

At the beginning AOMS consisted of a one-day program held at the UNC medical school, but soon participants from other universities around the country (Universities of Rosario, La Rioja, Mendoza, Comahue, Buenos Aires, Tucumán, Corrientes and Córdoba) were invited to join and the program grew into a full weekend event held each year at a resort hotel in the city of La Falda, in the mountains of Córdoba. In addition to competing for awards the AOMS has taken on a life of its own, evolving into an event that includes other activities that promote student interactions, like walks, sports, theatric skits, and a “Dean’s Forum” at which different topics are debated each year. The original spirit upon which AOMS was established – the celebration of academic excellence and rewarding students who strive to improve themselves – continues today.

Those who score the highest on the exam are awarded a variety of different prizes, which include trophies and metals, books, and medical devices, all donated by AOMS sponsors (UNC Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences Foundation, Hemoderivatives Laboratory, the Argentine Diabetes Society – headquartered in Cordoba, Doctors and Biochemist Commission of the Province of Cordoba). In addition to these prizes, in recent years the companies Ledesma and Arcor have joined as sponsors and donate notebooks and chocolates to the winners. The 3-4 highest scores on the exam receive La Voz del Exterior Scholarships.

In the beginning, to fund these scholarships, Dr. Barker wrote letters to 350 medical doctors practicing medicine in the United States, who had received their MD degrees from the UNC, and asked them for their support. Approximately half responded positively and thus the “La Voz Del Exterior” Scholarship program was born.