A Message from the President | University of Colorado

Creating Futures:
Donors quick to support diverse students in School of Medicine

Student recipients and donors were honored by the CU Foundation and SOM in celebration of the President's Medical Scholarship and University Physicians Inc. Scholarship.

The President's Challenge scholarship fund has helped the University of Colorado School of Medicine increase its percentage of first-year CU School of Medicine students from underrepresented groups (not only ethnic and racial minorities, but also students from rural areas and low socioeconomic backgrounds) from 8 percent to 33 percent – in only two years.

Like many medical schools, the SOM faces challenges recruiting and retaining a student body that mirrors the diversity of the broader population. With the average U.S. medical school graduate accruing more than $150,000 in debt, less-affluent students might find medical school to be beyond their reach.

In response to an accreditation-report finding that CU's medical school needed to diversify its student body, and to enlist the support from donors, in 2009 I issued the President's Challenge. Through discretionary funds, my office committed $2 million each year for five years, offering to match – dollar for dollar – new gifts to support the recruitment of medical students from historically underrepresented backgrounds.

Donors have been rising to the challenge. More than $4 million in private gifts have established or augmented 28 new scholarships. These donors have included some 70 School of Medicine faculty, including Dean Richard Krugman and all four senior associate deans.

Additionally, donors have given more than $7 million toward pipeline programs that increase the ability for demographically underrepresented students to pursue and prepare for medical professions. In all, more than $20 million has become available for SOM scholarships and pipeline programs as part of the "Investing in the Future of Medicine: One Student at a Time" initiative, a major component of CU's $1.5 billion Creating Futures campaign.

On a revisit, the accreditation team said the diversity question had been addressed. To date, the President's Challenge funds have supported 43 current School of Medicine students from diverse backgrounds and circumstances, and more than 100 students should benefit during the duration of the President's Challenge.

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