Attention area college sophomores interested in becoming physicians:
Mississippi will pay your way through medical school if you meet certain criteria and agree to to be a primary care physician in an approved rural or medically under served community in Mississippi for at least four years after you finish your residency.
The Legislature in 2007 established the Mississippi Rural Physicians Scholarship Program to increase the number of rural physicians in the state.
Janie Guice, executive director, explained the program at the McComb Rotary Club on Wednesday. She was introduced by veteran McComb physician Dr. Ralph Brock. Magnolia physician Dr. Luke Lampton, a member of her board, was a guest.
Guice explained that the program will seek to identify college sophomores who demonstrate a commitment and academic achievement to become rural physicians. They will be mentored in two years of academic enrichment, including the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT).
Fifteen each year are authorized to receive $30,000 annual scholarships to attend medical school.
They must be Mississippi residents from rural areas or towns of under 20,000 population and commit to practice in a designated under served Mississippi community for each year they receive a scholarship.
The scholars must enter residency training in one of five primary care specialties: family medicine, general internal medicine, medicine-pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology or pediatrics. Guice said a typical student comes out of medical school $150,000 in debt, but under this program one could graduate debt free.
So far, she said, 10 scholarships have been awarded to the University of Mississippi Medical School, as the program is in its early stages.
Guice may be contacted at (601) 815-9022 or jguice@ovc. umsmed.edu.
