Federation Donates Book Stipends To Rural Medicine Program Scholars
Paula Clawson, UAB SOM Huntsville
(256) 551-4609
The Alabama Farmers Federation continued its support of health care for rural Alabama by donating $500 book stipends to scholars of the Rural Medicine Program (RMP) at UAB’s School of Medicine.
The donation was presented during a matriculation ceremony at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika Aug. 20.
The RMP is a pre-matriculation year before entering UAB School of Medicine for students raised in rural Alabama. The program supports and guides students to return to rural Alabama as primary care physicians. The Federation has provided the book stipend annually since the first class in 2006. Of the students who are now practicing physicians, 73.1 percent are in primary care in Alabama.
This year’s class of eight students will spend the 2018-19 academic year at Auburn University doing course work that address the unique needs and experiences of rural Alabama and its residents. They then enter the UAB School of Medicine for four years.