BEYOND THE BOOKS: HOW A FOOD PANTRY SUPPORTS MEDICAL STUDENTS’ WELL-BEING
For medical students at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, the challenges of rigorous study, many years of schooling and a highly stressful career can contribute to burnout, personal struggles and health and well-being issues, including food insecurity. Fortunately, through compassionate donor support, resources are readily available to address students’ nutrition needs, including an on-campus food pantry, food vouchers, donated meals and emergency funds for students struggling to make ends meet.
CELEBRATING FACULTY EXCELLENCE
The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine established the donor-funded Inserra Family Faculty Research Awards to honor excellence in teaching, community engagement, research and service to the profession and the institution. The awards recognize faculty for teaching excellence, distinguished achievement, leadership and service. Celebrating outstanding faculty also attracts top talent, elevating the school’s reputation.
PAVING THE PATHWAY TO BECOMING A PHYSICIAN
Emmanuel Ihionkhan may not have always known he wanted to be a physician, but his journey into medicine began while growing up in Auchi, Nigeria. Unfortunately, the tragic loss of his cousin made Emmanuel see firsthand the failure of public health care amongst underserved populations. From that experience, Emmanuel realized his calling. The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine’s unique curriculum, which allows students to complete the M.D./MBA program in four years, intrigued Emmanuel. He was also drawn to the Human Dimension program. After graduating from medical school, Emmanuel has a long-term goal of addressing the gaps in health care that made him want to become a doctor in the first place.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
For Kyle Otto, strong family values have been the foundation and the inspiration for pursuing medicine. His first impression of a dedicated doctor was his grandfather – a successful cardiologist who Kyle vividly recalls working hard for his patients. While working as a scribe in Hackensack University Medical Center’s Emergency Department, Kyle was offered a first look at what the medical field was really like. During his first year of medical school, Kyle realized family medicine was his calling when one of his classmates said she could see him as the family doctor for her own family. From that point on, something just began to click, and soon after, Kyle found it was everything he was searching for in a specialty.
“I am truly grateful for the scholarship support, as it helped ease the financial burden of medical school and allowed me to focus more on my education, research and community involvement. This support has been instrumental in my journey toward becoming a physician dedicated to making a meaningful impact, and I hope to one day pay it forward by supporting future students on their own paths.”
EMMANUEL IHIONKHAN STUDENT
“The generous scholarship support from the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine empowered me to pursue my medical education without any anxiety about finances, and to discover my love for family medicine as a result.”
OTTO STUDENT
KYLE
CONNECTING MEDICAL STUDENTS WITH THE COMMUNITY
The Human Dimension program at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine is fundamental to the curriculum and connects students with people in the community to understand the various factors that greatly impact health outcomes. By interacting with underserved people throughout the entirety of their education, medical students gain a greater understanding of concerns like financial and housing instability and other socio-economic challenges that greatly impact health. Thanks to visionary donor support, the Human Dimension program will expand across all graduate medical education programs within Hackensack Meridian Health, strengthen programs through ongoing improvements and innovation, enhance assessment methods and advance academic scholarship.
Be The Difference is a transformational effort focusing on four key pillars: enhancing the delivery of patient care, accelerating groundbreaking research and discovery, expanding access to advanced care and revolutionizing medical education while supporting the nursing profession.
Through this ambitious initiative, Hackensack Meridian Health Foundation aims to reshape health care for patients, clinicians and the diverse communities it serves, paving the way for a brighter, healthier future. Thank you for making a difference!
INVESTING IN THE FUTURE OF PRIMARY CARE
To address the growing need for primary care physicians (PCPs), donor funds helped establish the Primary Care Scholars Fund. PCPs focus on preventive measures and health maintenance to detect health problems early, before they turn into life-threatening diseases. However, a deterrent to specializing in primary care is the cost of medical school, as primary care tends to pay lower wages compared to secondary specialties such as oncology, cardiology and neurology. The Primary Care Scholars Fund alleviates medical students’ financial burden in exchange for a commitment to practice primary care medicine at Hackensack Meridian Health. This will increase the number of PCPs in the state and launch a legacy where students are enabled and empowered to follow their passion for primary care medicine.
“This is a really organic way we can attract great talent to where it is needed most. We are attracting some of the brightest minds we have and directing them toward careers which will be enormously fulfilling and critical to people’s needs in the decades to come across health care, but especially here in New Jersey.”
JEFFREY BOSCAMP, M.D. PRESIDENT AND DEAN, HACKENSACK MERIDIAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
