Anonymous donations expected to exceed $50 million will help pay for the next half-century of medical laboratory science students at the University of Washington.
Dr. Tim Dellit, dean of the university’s medical school, announced the surprising news Monday to about 30 grateful undergraduate students, who will each receive the equivalent of two quarters of tuition for a senior clinical rotation. According to the Seattle Times.
“I’m really shocked,” Jasmine Wertz said as her eyes filled with tears. “Overwhelmed. So grateful.”
Students in the program are trained to perform clinical laboratory tests on patient samples to help diagnose, treat and prevent disease and other conditions. Their clinical rotations are very time-consuming, making it difficult to work part-time during them.
The gift is the latest in a series of recent donations to help pay for colleges across the country. Last year, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York Received $1 billion in donations Tuition at the school is free for Ruth Gottesman, a former professor and widow of a Wall Street investor.
Most Johns Hopkins medical students no longer pay tuition $1 billion gift From Bloomberg Philanthropies.
In September, West Virginia Marshall University President Brad Smith and his wife, Alys Smith, announced $50 million gift Pushing for a plan to eliminate student debt, in part by paying tuition for West Virginia students whose families make $65,000 or less.
Washington University announced Monday it will provide about $8,000 to $10,000 per student, said Susan Gregg, a spokesperson for the Washington University School of Medicine. The program will also expand from 70 to 100 students over the next 10 years.
The donor from Washington state wished to remain anonymous but “has a relationship with the project,” Gregg said. The donor is also a fan of local burger chain Dick’s, and burgers were piled high on plates as students celebrated.
The medical laboratory services field faces growing demand and an aging workforce in Washington, according to the University of Washington School of Medicine. These factors have resulted in “an urgent need to expand the pipeline of highly skilled clinical laboratory professionals,” the health care system said in a news release.
“In many ways, you are the glue of our entire health system,” Dalet told the students. “You are the unsung heroes. You work behind the scenes to make all the mechanisms of health care work.”