Lowering your golf score is a good thing – so are scholarships to help lower debt for medical school students.
DPR Construction and Sundt Construction, Inc, Joint Venture will be the presenting sponsor for the fourth annual University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix Golf Tournament scheduled for Friday, Sept. 11, at Legacy Golf Club, 6808 S. 32nd St., in Phoenix. The tournament supports student scholarships for the downtown Phoenix medical school.
“We want the composition of our student body to reflect the wonderful diversity of our community and state,” said Stuart D. Flynn, MD, dean of the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix. “However, for some, the cost of medical school is prohibitive in their ability to attend our school. Scholarships are critical to lowering the costs for students. We know students with scholarships are not only more apt to attend our school, but this also allows them to follow their career dreams less encumbered by debt, especially critical for those wishing to enter primary care disciplines. DPR and Sundt have supported the tournament since year one, and it is wonderful to have their commitment to this critical endeavor.”
The college was created to help address the critical shortage of physicians in Arizona. Prior to 2007, Phoenix was the largest city in the nation without a medical school granting MD degrees.
“The University of Arizona College of Medicine is well revered nationwide, and the decision in the early 2000s to expand the campus to Phoenix and graduate a greater number of physicians each year has proven not only to assist healthcare in Arizona, it has increased medical research and treatment, too,” said Dave Elrod, LEED AP, Regional Manager of DPR Construction. “The scholarships are a must, and we are honored to play a role in building great healthcare, and great physicians.”
“Arizona’s chronic shortage of healthcare professionals has been well documented,” said Marty Hedlund, Southwest District Manager of Sundt. “We are glad to do our part — whether it’s constructing new, state-of-the-art medical training facilities or supporting this golf tournament to raise scholarships — to help produce the next generation of physicians for our home state.”
Scholarships are critical to train some of the best and brightest future physicians, to whom the ability to pay for medical school can be an overwhelming challenge. The cost of a medical degree has more than tripled in the past decade. The American Association of Medical Colleges has reported the national median debt of students who graduated in 2014 from public medical school was $170,000.
