Last year the SDN volunteer members designated that each Winter they will make a donation to a healthcare related charity. For the 2006-2007 Winter season, the volunteer members donated $5000 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The members chose Make-A-Wish because of its longstanding tradition of providing service to ill children throughout the world. Each year the Make-A-Wish Foundation provides hope, strength and joy to nearly 13,000 children and their families.

What on the surface appears to be “just another forum” is in fact a lifeline for some. “One of my biggest regrets in college was not finding SDN earlier…seriously,” says SDN member Brandon. (All SDN Forums participants create unique user names, and for the sake of anonymity, have acquiesced to the use of their first names for quotes.)

Yes, they take it that seriously. And for good reason.

According to Lee Burnett, executive director and co-founder of the Student Doctor Network, the SDN Forums have grown to become the largest pre-health and health professional student forums on the Internet.

SDN is operated by the Coastal Research Group, a non-profit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization (which means any monies donated are also a write off for the donor). Entirely run by volunteers, SDN provides numerous Student Doctor Forums, where camaraderie, friendships, and even, rumor has it, marriages, have been formed. In short, there would be no SDN were it not for the many moderators, administrators and advisors that volunteer their time to keep SDN running on task. Read the full story