Story and photos by
Janet I. Martineau
Rotary Club of Saginaw recently paid a significant medical “bill.”
With absolute joy and pleasure.
Back in September, our club sponsored a fundraising golf scramble and raised $3,800 from it, which golf chair Cathy Tafel in late December presented in check form to Michael Zehnder, the senior director of advancement for the Central Michigan University College of Medicine.
That money — and thank you to all the golfers who participated and the sponsors — went into an unusual, if not unique, endowment titled the “Thanks for Staying” Rotary Scholarship Fund.
It was begun as a partnership between the CMU College of Medicine, the Rotary Club Saginaw - Downtown, the Rotary Club of Saginaw Valley and the Rotary Club of Saginaw Sunrise. Annually it awards $10,000 to a CMU medical graduate who agrees to spend his or her residency in the Great Lakes Bay region.
The money is applied directly to the awardee’s student loan debt. “The national average of medical indebtedness is $200,000,” Zehnder said in accepting the check. “At the CMU College of Medicine, it’s closer to $250,000.”
It takes many physicians into their 40s before they pay off their medical education debts, even with the impressive incomes they have, he said.
Studies indicate that wherever a newly-minted doctor spends his or her three- to five-year residency tends to be where they settle permanently. And this portion of the country is considered an underserved area when it comes to doctors, he said.
Eventually the fund partnership hopes to raise $1 million, Zehnder said, which would then allow four $10,000 “Thanks for Staying” awards annually. With the golf day donation, that fund stands $249, 371 — “thus providing a great return on the investment.”
On an average, Zehnder said, 70-75% of its graduates match to a residency in a primary care field with over 50% of them staying in Michigan. By 2030, Michigan will need a projected 862 additional primary care physicians.
“Here in Saginaw (where the CMU College of Medicine teaching hospitals are located in addition to its Mount Pleasant campus classrooms) we offer primary care residencies in OB/GYN, Family Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, General Surgery and Pediatrics,” said Zehnder.
Currently the CMU School of Medicine receives more the 8,000 applications from all over the country annually for its 104 openings.
To Date the three Rotary clubs with their endowment efforts through fundraising, special events and donation have given $60,000 to six students who decided to stay in our region after graduation.
— Chris Hesterly (Family Practice Saginaw)
— Mark Lemanski (Family Medicine My Michigan in Alcona County)
— Jade Foldie Schuchardt (Family Medicine in Saginaw)
— Kyla Walworth (OB/GYN Saginaw)
— Jisselly McGregor (Psychiatry Saginaw)
— Courtney Hollingsworth (Emergency Medicine Saginaw)
The winner of the 2024 scholarship will be announced in April, Zehnder said.
He also briefly addressed the wide-spread rumors that the entire CMU College of Medicine would be moving from Mount Pleasant to Saginaw.
There are three things to address, he said. “First, would it be beneficial to our students because of our hospitals in Saginaw and their experience and mentors available, and that answer would be yes.”
But the other two factors are the astronomical building costs “and then it would, of course, be up to the board of trustees to approve it or not. So it is way premature right now.”
The CMU medical school started in 2010 in response to the need for primary care doctors to practice in rural and underserved areas.