![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-main\/medschool-prd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2023\/07\/DAR-Stewardship-Modify-School-of-Medicine-Challenge-Thank-You-Card-2023_300-ppi-300x137.jpg\")
We all know the impact a scholarship can have on a student: It\u2019s life changing.<\/p>\nWe all know the impact a scholarship can have on a student: It\u2019s life changing.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of 2022, the School of Medicine launched a $5 million Dean\u2019s Scholarship Challenge to help ensure that tomorrow\u2019s leaders in medicine are educated at Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n
The yearlong matching gift effort, which ended Dec. 31, 2022, aimed to expand scholarship support through a combination of donor gifts and a university match for students in the MD program, Medical Scientist Training Program and other dual-degree programs. Response from the School of Medicine community was strong\u2014with initial response inspiring more challenge funds from Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The Challenge raised $10.5 million, with 33 participants. The total impact on scholarship endowment, inclusive of institutional matching, was $26 million. The funds include match contributions from the University and Medical Center, and support medical school students, as well as the school\u2019s dual-degree programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you to all of the participants in our challenge and for recognizing the importance of reducing the debt burden for our medical students,\u201d said Donald W. Brady, MD, BA\u201986, MD\u201990, executive vice dean for Academic Affairs. \u201cThese remarkable students are our future physicians, researchers and medical educators. This increase in scholarship endowment allows us to better meet the financial needs of our students who otherwise might accrue significant debt and can allow them to focus on their studies and professional goals without the financial worry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amad Amedy, a second-year medical student, is one of the scholarship recipients. \u201cScholarships, no matter how big or small, go a long way for someone like myself. Medicine is already so time consuming, that having to make active financial considerations and sacrifices just adds to the stress,\u201d added Amedy. \u201cFor example, when I\u2019m studying for an exam and would like to grab a quick meal to go, I instead have to cook my own meal for fear of not being able to pay rent. The same logic applies to outings with friends, where I\u2019ve often had to say no because I couldn\u2019t afford it. With Nashville\u2019s rising living costs, this is becoming even more of an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duc Pham, MD\u201998, received the Canby Robinson Scholarship as a student. He and his wife, Tam Le, have generously supported the Dean\u2019s Scholarship Challenge, building upon their earlier gifts. \u201cWithout scholarships, I could not have afforded the education. I would have been deterred; I would not be a doctor today,\u201d Pham said. \u201cThose scholarships were life changing for me. I say \u2018thank you\u2019 to the people who established those scholarships.\u201d<\/p>\n
With students facing rising costs of medical school, the Dean\u2019s Scholarship Challenge aims to grow the School of Medicine\u2019s scholarship endowment and reduce the debt its graduates take on. The medical school\u2019s yearly tuition, currently more than $64,000, remains lower than many of its peers, yet many Vanderbilt students take on debt. For example, 51% of students in the Class of 2022 took out student loans and graduated with an average debt of $220,000.<\/p>\n
Amedy looks forward to continuing his studies at Vanderbilt and possibly pursuing surgery as a specialty area. \u201cVanderbilt is a beautiful campus, where everything you need is a walk away. The administration is incredibly supportive and will ensure that each student is set up for success after medical school, which helps take the edge off much of the stress associated with thinking about life beyond medical school. The money I receive thanks to donors can go a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information about supporting scholarships in the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, contact Taylor Wood at 615-343-5648 or taylor.h.wood@vanderbilt.edu.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We all know the impact a scholarship can have on a student: It\u2019s life changing. At the beginning of 2022, the School of Medicine launched a $5 million Dean\u2019s Scholarship Challenge to help ensure that tomorrow\u2019s leaders in medicine are educated at Vanderbilt. The yearlong matching gift effort, which ended Dec. 31, 2022, aimed to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[34,36,46,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vm-alumni-news","category-vm-giving-in-action","category-vm-summer-2023","category-vm-vanderbilt-community"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcDnub-Xo","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3682"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3782,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682\/revisions\/3782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}