Monday, October 18, 2010

10/14 Meeting-Mississippi Rural Physicians Scholarship Program

I hope that those of you who went to William Carey had an enjoyable trip!

A few upcoming events:
  • Deadline to order 2010 – 2011 AMSA T-shirts is quickly approaching! Orders must be placed by Friday, October 22nd. If you have not yet placed an order, e-mail us with your name, netID, and t-shirt size. The t-shirts will be $10 – 12 (we will have a price once we place the order).
  • Two stadium cleanups this month! The next one will be on October 23rd, which is Homecoming, so please come! The next stadium cleanup will be the following weekend on October 30th. We have three possible medical school visits left. Remember, if you want to go on a medical school visit, you must have come to two stadium cleanups for the first visit and one cleanup for every subsequent visit.
  • Sweet Potato Drop on November 12th from 8 am – 12 pm. The Sweet Potato Drop will be held at the Palmeiro Center. This is a come-and-go thing so you don’t have to sign up for a time. Come out if you can! This is a great (and interesting) way to get community service.
  • Practice MCAT November 14th at 2 pm. We will be meeting at Hand Lab. The price for the test is $30, and you will need a credit card to pay for it. AMSA will give you a check to reimburse you for the test.
  • Our next meeting is November 11th at 7 pm in McCool. Chief Patterson will be speaking about medical opportunities with the Navy, and she will be providing Abner’s!

This past Thursday Mrs. Janie Guice, Executive Director of the Mississippi Rural Physicians Scholarship Program (MRPSP), spoke to us about the MRPSP.

Her presentation covered information that can be found on the MRPSP website: http://mrpsp.umc.edu/index.html
Some important points (and interesting information) from her presentation:
  • Mississippi has the fewest number of physicians of any state in the US. The MRPSP aims to fix this problem by encouraging pre-med students to practice in rural parts of Mississippi and helping them achieve this goal.
  • The program targets college sophomores interested in practicing Primary Care in Mississippi.
  • Ideally, students enter the program when they are college sophomores and remain in it through Medical or Osteopathic School, Residency, and Initial Practice (4 years).
  • Juniors and seniors may enter the program as well and continue through it as normal. Juniors do not receive sophomore training, but everything else is the same. Seniors do not receive sophomore or junior undergraduate benefits and fill out a different application.
  • The undergraduate requirements for applying to the program are very similar to those for medical school and can be found on the website. Applicants must also have a rural background, exposure to medicine, a strong work ethic, a commitment to MRPSP, good faculty evaluations, and participation in volunteer activities.
  • The undergraduate application opens on November 1st and closes on February 15th.
  • One interesting benefit from participating in this program is consideration for Direct Admission to UMMC. Basically, you can earn a seat in medical school while you are completing your undergraduate degree (and bypass some of the application process).
  • Additionally, this program provides undergraduates with Medical Encounters experiences at UMMC, rural health academic enrichment, rural clinical experience, rural physician mentors, and a free Kaplan MCAT prep course. During medical school, this program can provide a $30,000 a year scholarship along with faculty mentors and academic support.
  • Students complete residency in one of five areas: Family Medicine, OB/GYN, Internal Medicine, Medicine-Pediatrics, or Pediatrics.
  • After residency completion, members of the program must enter a clinic-based practice in a rural town of less than 20,000 people. You must remain in the town for at least 4 years in order to complete the program.
  • If, at any time, you default on the program, the money must be repaid in full along with 6% interest. Be sure this is what you want to do before you apply!
If you have any questions, you can contact Janie Guice by phone at (601)815-9022 or by email at jguice@umc.edu.