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Three Mississippi College Students Receive Rural Physician Scholarships


Caleb Buckner of Starkville, Hunter McKnight of French Camp and Shelby Swede of Olive Branch

A Mississippi rural physicians scholarship will help Shelby Swede pursue her dreams.

A May 2016 Mississippi College graduate from Olive Branch, Shelby is thrilled to be selected as she embarks on her journey to medical school. The MC biology/medical sciences major is also grateful to the superb education she received on the Clinton campus.

“Rural medicine is all about community, and I couldn’t have gotten better training than I got at Mississippi College,” Swede said.

A graduate of Olive Branch High, Shelby joins two other MC students chosen for funding from the Mississippi Rural Physicians Scholarship Program. They are: incoming seniors Caleb Buckner of Starkville, and Hunter McKnight of French Camp.

“That’s huge to have these three from Mississippi College,” said Dan Coleman, the program’s associate director in Jackson. “They were very well prepared. They are great students.”

Only 18 college students were selected for the scholarships statewide.

Created in 2007, the program identifies students showing the commitment and academic achievement to become rural primary care physicians in the Magnolia State.

Once they meet all requirements, students can be admitted to the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in Jackson or the College of Osteopathic Medicine at William Carey University in Hattiesburg. Scholarships are for up to $30,000 per-year, climbing to $120,000 over four years. And that comes in handy given the steep costs of a medical education.

The scholars must provide four years of service in a clinic-based practice in a Mississippi community of 20,000 or fewer people.

When it comes to medical care, Mississippi is vastly underserved, Coleman noted following the announcement in late June. Some rural Mississippi communities have gone more than twenty years without a physician, he said.

Housed at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the scholarship program, he said, “is a huge blessing,” a terrific way to assist the students with paying the costs of their education.