Several students in the University of Colorado Denver's new BA/BS-MD program will receive School of Medicine scholarships thanks to a new endowment funded by a bequest from former University of Colorado medical researcher Jean Baughman (BS '58, University of Colorado at Boulder).

The bequest is currently valued at $1.6 million in cash but includes other assets that, when liquidated, could add roughly $250,000 more to the total. Baughman made this commitment, facilitated by the University of Colorado Foundation, in 2000 in honor of her stepfather Charles Henry Hargreaves, M.D., who received two CU degrees, including one from the School of Medicine in 1950.

Baughman had worked in the hematology lab at the School of Medicine for several years after graduating from CU-Boulder with a Bachelor of Science degree in medical technology. After a career at CU and later in New Mexico, she retired to San Antonio and died in 2008.

The scholarships, to be awarded in perpetuity, will be distributed beginning in 2014 to students entering the School of Medicine as part of UC Denver's BA/BS-MD program—a new program that combines four years of undergraduate schooling on the UC Denver campus with four years of medical training at the School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus. The program aims to attract top Colorado students and help them pursue careers as primary physicians in the state's underserved communities without incurring large debt loads. The first cohort of BA/BS-MD students will begin the eight-year program in Fall 2010.