Meet Amanda.
Amanda graduated from a public-school system that served a high-proportion of students from impoverished and at-risk back grounds. She was a top student and did well in college, despite some struggles with standardized tests. She is deeply focused on serving at-risk women during her career as a physician and scholar-activist. She was admitted to the University of Michigan Medical School with a full scholarship.
Pre-clinical medical school was very hard for Amanda. The pace of content was overwhelming and she struggled to keep up. She also struggled with testing, and found herself having to remediate significant content. She was placed on “academic leave of absence” to enable her to step away from the curriculum, work on study skills, and catch up on content. During this time, she was no longer eligible for financial support as she was no longer matriculated in school. Her family was financially strapped and asking them for help was not feasible. She found herself working to catch up at school, working to pay for food and rent, emotionally devastating by her academic failings, and losing faith that she will realize her dream of serving at-risk women. She began skipping meals and feeling isolated and distant from the high-resource medical school community.
Our goal is to make sure each Michigan medical student has the resources they need to launch their impact focused career trajectory.