Illinois Medicine

scholarship by Kevin McKeough Dreams W HETHER IT'S A dedication to public health, a desire to provide basic medical care, or the financial leap for those who are the first in their families to attend college, students in the College of Medicine sometimes need financial and educa- tional support to pursue their passions and achieve their full potential. That's the impetus behind two new initiatives of the college—the Raymond Nester Sweeney Scholarship Program and the renovation of the College of Medicine Building (see story, page 20). "The college already provides our students with an outstanding education. We want to make it even better, while reducing the financial pressures on them when they graduate," says Dimitri Azar, MD, MBA, dean of the college. The Sweeney Scholarship Program is named for the late Raymond Nester Sweeney, MD '68, a radiologist who spent most of his career practicing in Terre Haute, Ind. Grateful for the education at the College of Medicine that he regarded as the key to his success as a physician, and also quite successful in investing, Sweeney made an estate gift of nearly $20 million to the college, which has created an endowment fund that is being used in part to provide student scholarships. The fund also will be used to establish endowed professorships to help the college recruit and retain top faculty. "We are trying to strengthen our ability to recruit high-achieving students, especially those from underrepresented minority groups, to the college by allowing them to focus on their education and fulfill their potential to become leaders in academic medicine," Azar says. No Longer Deferred The new Raymond Nester Sweeney Scholarships bolster existing financial aid and open the door to the top students in the nation The funds raised for the Sweeney Scholarships, which will be awarded for the first time in 2012-13, will enable the college to increase both the number and the dollar amount of scholarships overall. "We want to ease the cost of education to students so we can graduate capable, gifted, hard-working and compassionate students, particularly those who plan to work in underserved areas or pursue careers in primary care medicine," Azar says. Twenty-three students currently receive full tuition scholarships, and that number will increase as students begin receiving scholarships funded by Sweeney's gift next year. On average, scholarships total about $5,600. In the past year, 128 students out of the 1,400 enrolled in the college received scholarships. As such, the Sweeney Scholarships will ramp up an already strong commitment on the college's part to supporting students like M4 Nneka Madu, who was drawn to medicine by a desire to make a positive difference in patients' lives. The eldest of five children of a pharmacist and a nurse who moved to the U.S. from their native Nige- ria when she was 2, Madu discovered her calling when she accompa- nied her mother on a trip back to Nigeria at age 13. "When she goes back, she brings people medicine and goes to see people who are sick," she says. "I felt overwhelmed by the problems the country was facing, but watching my mom, I felt the one field in which you could actually make a difference, even one on one, was medicine." After graduating from Yale University, where Madu majored in the history of science and medicine, she chose the College of Medicine for the opportunities it afforded to provide care to an urban popula- tion. She was also offered a dean's scholarship, which covers the full cost of her tuition and fees for four years. "The college is a great medical school. And the scholarship definitely swayed my decision," she says. "I was absolutely elated. I felt I could do whatever I want because it's what I love to do—and not ILLINOIS MEDICINE | 17

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