If 2013 was a year of looking back in celebration of our 30 years at the forefront of AOM education, 2014 was a year establishing the foundation for an even brighter and more inspiring future! With student enrollment trending decisively upward, including close to no students transferring out and a significant number transferring in, the creation of a variety of wonderful and even ground-breaking opportunities for our students and alumni, the undertaking of a number of campus and clinic upgrades, and the addition of internationally renowned experts to teach in our doctoral and master’s programs, it is clear that Emperor’s College is taking flight into an even more extraordinary and vibrant era at the forefront of AOM education.

The Concentrations
Without a doubt, one of the major reasons why the student body is growing at Emperor’s is because of the College’s commitment to expanding the educational opportunities provided to students. A noteworthy example, beginning in the Fall 2014 quarter, students were offered a way to officially organize a combination of classroom and clinical experiences around an area of interest, the Concentrations. The Concentrations, roughly analogous to college minors, are exceedingly popular with the students, so much so that we will be expanding them in the future. Students can now, if they wish, focus a segment of their education in Classical Acupuncture, Korean Acupuncture, Japanese Acupuncture, and Nei Gong.  Students opting to participate in the Concentrations program will receive, upon completion and in addition to their diploma, special commendation for completing one or more of the Concentration areas. No other school of acupuncture and Oriental medicine offers anything like the Concentrations.

Additions to an Already Esteemed Faculty
One of the things that has always separated Emperor’s from most other AOM colleges is the size and excellence of its faculty. That level of excellence was taken to a whole new level in 2014 with the successful recruitment of Ji Zhang, a major contributor to the Materia Medica of China, to supervise interns in our clinic, and the appointments of prominent Korean-style acupuncturist Jae Hoon Kim and world renowned Tai Chi master Tang Pang-Yen. With the addition of Tang, Emperor’s has firmly positioned itself as making available to its students the broadest and deepest selection of tai chi styles of any AOM college in the country. Tai chi, in addition to qi gong and meditation, forms the foundation of the Nei Gong concentration now available to students.

Extraordinary New  Opportunities For Alumni and Students

Being Alive Externship

In January 2014 an externship at Being Alive was made available to the school’s interns. Being Alive is a non-profit organization serving people living with HIV/AIDS. Clinical interns treat some of the most complex cases they will encounter in their careers in a high volume, medical setting. Since the externship’s inception, Emperor’s College Interns have performed close to 1000 treatments.

Office of Alumni Relations

In September, the college announced the formation of an office of Alumni Relations and hired a coordinator to head it up. The office will work on multiple fronts to strengthen ties between the school and its graduates,  connect new grads with old grads, provide support to alumni, and make available opportunities for alum to grow their professional practices.

Los Angeles Veteran and Families Stand Down

In November, the college was invited to create two mobile clinics at the Los Angeles Veteran and Families Stand Down held just before Christmas at the L.A. Convention Center. Stand Downs are events held in cities across the country to provide food, clothing, services and referrals to homeless vets and vets at-risk of becoming homeless.

The L.A. event was the largest Stand Down in the country and Emperor’s College was the only school of acupuncture and Oriental medicine invited to create and operate clinics at the event where our interns and alumni treated several hundred patients. Every major media story about the event featured Emperor’s College interns and/or alum, and our participation was heralded as a huge success by the event organizers. We are honored to have been invited back for the 2015 Stand Down.

Special Olympics World Games 2015

In September, Emperor’s was honored to have been  selected to provide wellness services at the Special Olympics World Games 2015, the largest sporting event to be held in the world in 2015. The college was chosen to organize and lead all AOM activities at the games, including setting up and running at least two mobile clinics to treat the 7,000 athletes and 3,000 coaches coming from 177 countries to participate. The Games will run for nine days at the end of July and will be the first time ever that AOM services will be available at such games.  Emperor’s College Doctoral students and alumni will be the primary care providers and will be supported by the school’s Master’s students. The college will also organize the teaching of all tai chi and yoga classes at the games.

(Please take a moment to check out la2015.org to learn more about the games and how you might be able to help with what will be the largest humanitarian event in the world in 2015.)

Recognized For Our Commitment to Excellence
And finally, recognizing the college’s commitment to academic excellence, the Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine elected Emperor’s College president, Dr. Yun Kim, Secretary,  one of the four senior leadership positions on the Council’s Executive Committee. The Council is comprised of the 54 accredited acupuncture schools in the United States and is recognized as the organizational authority and leader in acupuncture and Oriental medicine education.

2014 was a big year for the college and 2015 looks to be bigger yet.  In 2014, the school adopted a new tagline, “The Future of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine is Here!”. Those aren’t just words; with new ObamaCare rules supportive of acupuncture and Oriental medicine going into effect in 2014, the future of the medicine is indeed here. Emperor’s College is proud and honored to be leading the way in educating the medicine’s future great practitioners, scholars, teachers and leaders.

To keep up to date on all the great things happening at Emperor’s College in 2015, visit us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/EmperorsCollege