i have not had time to do this at all. i am almost finished with my second year - although i was going part time/ish and so it's my official first year and i have barely had time to step outside and see the sun but that's me. it takes me much longer to learn things than most people so i have to spend 3 or 4x the amount of time studying than my fellow students do. my closest friend in the program is going to school full time, has a part time job, goes out every night and goes to buddhist retreats several times a month, plus she takes extra classes outside of school on a regular basis. personally, that would kill me.

as for networking while in school. i don't know. since it's a 4 year program there is plenty of time for that and plenty of time to meet acupuncturists along the way. i recently found someone whose style i respect and am going to try to intern with him, but not until my last year - he doesn't even take interns that aren't in their last year. the problem with just finding someone before you know what you're looking for is that every single practitioner practices the medicine completely differently. this was what shocked me the most. i haven't found 2 people who do the same things yet. after a couple of years however i did realize that i like the more traditional (pre mao) approach and am leaning towards that.

i love some of my teacher's techniques, yet others i do not like at all and this came, for me, with knowledge, time and a basic understanding of the medicine.

i think, though, if you have the time, then finding ppl to network with is a great idea. my school has quite a few part time jobs in acupuncture clinics and many students have taken these routes while still in school.

what i have found the most helpful for me is going to a variety of acupuncturists for treatments. this gives me hands on experience as to what i like and don't like and what i want to learn more about. i have seen almost all of my teachers for at least 6 treatments, or more. i switch off and go to one for a month or two, then another, then another, etc. they explain what they are doing and why and i feel their energy and see if their approach physically works for me or not. they all offer student discounts. this is what has benefited me the most.

on the other hand, going to our own clinic has been a disaster for me. although i learned a lot i got sicker than i've ever been and remained ill for 4 months straight. now i rarely go to our clinic.

Siobhan,

I work at the Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College, Berkeley (aimc.edu) doing the marketing. I used to hear from a lot of students that they were worried about getting patients as interns, or knowing what to do when they graduated. At the same time, the thing we lacked in terms of marketing was word-of-mouth "buzz". We realized that we essentially had the same problem and the same solution: networking. Our big answer was to create classes in Practice Building for Acupuncturists.
(aimc.edu/acupuncture-s...al.html#pe319)

But one of the small answers is much simpler: carry business cards with you. I know, I know ... a lot of you are probably cringing. And some of you are saying, "well, duh!" It is really that simple. Get yourself some business cards and a carrying case to keep them crisp. Cards don't do well in a wallet after a month, so you have keep them flowing if you use a wallet.

Make excuses to give them out. At the very moment you mention you are an acupuncture student, start reaching for your cards and interrupt yourself, "here, let me just give you my card." Even if people don't hang on to it, they are 1) impressed you are prepared, and 2) more likely to remember your name having seen it in print. And if they're anything like me, they'll write on the back of it where they met you (so be sure to leave space on the back for notes).

We require our interns at AIMC Berkeley to purchase cards from us so that they represent us in a unified way. But we also subsidize the cost over the span of their internship if they are assiduous in passing them out. It's a win-win when interns recruit their own patients for our clinic, get practice for when they go out into the real world, feel successful one day, and are glad we helped them get there. I hope this little tidbit helps you get there too.