The Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation (KTGF) Medical Student Program (MSP) is a faculty-guided, student-led group for any WashU medical student interested in learning more about Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP). The program receives independent funding from the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation, which supports a network of approximately 15 medical student programs across the country to foster interest in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Why Child and Adolescent Psychiatry?
- Psychiatric illnesses are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. It’s estimated that 70% of psychiatric illnesses start in childhood or adolescence.
- There are only 10,000 child and adolescent psychiatrists in the U.S., which is not enough to serve the growing need.
- There is a growing understanding of how brain development, genetic and epigenetic factors, and environmental influences like trauma and adversity impact psychiatric illness. This puts CAP at the frontier of understanding brain development and providing early interventions to improve children’s lives.
- Playing with kids is part of the job!
Why join the WashU KTGF MSP?
- You can meet child and adolescent psychiatrists, fellows, and other students interested in CAP in formal settings like our annual panel, “What is CAP?”, which describes career pathways in child and adolescent psychiatry and the training programs to get there.
- Students can gain early clinical experience by shadowing in the CAP outpatient clinics or attending our clinical events such as our interactive play therapy training.
- We provide a network for developing research interests and projects related to CAP. Our faculty sponsor, Dr. Alecia Vogel, is also the CAP Fellowship Assistant Program Director for Research, and can meet with interested students to help them connect to potential mentors. Researchers at various stages of training across the country also connect with students interested in CAP research at the annual virtual conferences.
- You can attend the annual KTGF conference – one of the only national conferences specifically dedicated to medical students.
What is the KTGF conference?
Every year, KTGF sponsors a 2-day event at one of the participating medical schools where students can meet and spend time with other students interested in CAP nationally and worldwide. Students can present research projects and clinical cases, and meet CAP faculty from the other KTGF medical schools. Often, the KTGF program covers your travel!
At the Spring 2026 KTGF conference, our WashU KTGF leader, Lisa Gorham, presented her project on understanding the needs of patients presenting with psychiatric chief complaints at the St. Louis Children’s Hospital ER, and another WashU KTGF leader, Jane Caulfield, presented her proposal to develop a knitting group to improve mindfulness in adolescents with eating disorders. WashU students participated in collegial “games” with other programs and spent quality time with our co-lead, Dr. Eric Spiegel. We’re looking forward to Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) hosting in January 2027!