Danto Family Gives Generously to Support Next Generation of Physicians

The Marvin and Betty Danto Family Foundation has a long legacy of giving to Beaumont Health and providing support to a wide range of programs throughout the health system, including hematology and oncology, cardiac care and geriatric medicine.

Beyond those extraordinary investments, the family foundation is also helping build the future of medical care by supporting scholarships for students at the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine (OUWB). Having given generously over the years to OUWB scholarships, they are continuing their efforts with the establishment of the Danto Family Partial Scholarship.

Gifts such as these are vitally important for allowing medical students to focus more fully on becoming highly skilled physicians, rather than worrying about a potential financial burden as they pursue their dreams.

“We are committed to providing OUWB students with access to the very best medical education possible at an affordable and stable cost, and the Danto family’s generosity is helping us reach that goal,” said Duane Mezwa, Stephan Sharf Dean at the OUWB. “This scholarship opportunity will help remove unnecessary barriers and ensure that debt need no longer be a deterrent for potential students.”

Launched in 2007, the OUWB today is a collaborative, diverse, inclusive and technologically advanced learning community, dedicated to enabling students to become skillful, ethical and compassionate physicians, inquisitive scientists who are invested in the scholarship of discovery, and dynamic and effective medical educators.

However, approximately 40 percent of OUWB students come from the lowest 60 percent of economic indicators. With new physicians graduating medical school with an average debt of nearly $200,000, many talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds do not think they can afford to attend medical school. And those who do decide to become doctors may end up with significant financial challenges that influence their personal and professional choices, including in what area of medicine they will specialize and which populations of patients they will eventually serve.

The Danto Family Partial Scholarship will help ensure that OUWB students will be able to receive a top-tier medical education without having to make this difficult choice.

“We are so thankful for the Danto family’s compassion, which will not only change the lives of the medical students who receive these scholarships, but of the patients and communities they will eventually serve,” said Margaret Cooney Casey, president of the Beaumont Health Foundation. “This gift will have a far-reaching impact for decades to come.”