Hey I'm also a student in Atlanta applying this cycle. I personally didn't have many connections to physicians through family or friends. What I did instead was send out a bunch of emails to Emory associated physicians that I found on the department website. So say I wanted to see what neurosurgery was like. I went to the Emory Neurosurgery faculty website (Faculty) and looked through a couple of their CVs to see which ones seemed receptive/interesting. For a lot of departments, their email is not listed but you can look up their contact info on the Emory directly (Emory Online Directory).
From there I sent an email explaining a little of my background, my interest in their specialty, and if they were open to having me shadow them. I recommend reaching out to a lot of physicians per speciality that you want to observe. I have had great results with this and have been able to shadow 3 different specialties in a pretty short time. If a physician responds, you'll most likely have to fill out some paperwork with the observership office, so there will be a lag time between establishing contact and actually observing. However, with COVID19 I do not believe Emory is allowing any shadowing right now so you'll probably have to wait a while before reaching out
