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Educating Doctors for Idaho
“You’re that family?”
Janelle Bettis Wise, grand-niece of philanthropist Laura Moore Cunningham, happily confessed. She told her inquiring friend that yes, she was part of that family — the family that had given that same friend a much-needed college scholarship approximately nine years ago.
What seems like a “small world” coincidence between friends is, instead, evidence of the reach and focus of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation.
Mrs. Cunningham, who was passionate about “making Idaho a better place,” died in 1963 and provided a lasting legacy to Idaho by establishing the foundation in her will. Wise, who sits on the foundation’s board with her sister, Laura Bettis, and their father, Harry Bettis, estimates that approximately 40 percent of the foundation’s disbursements are used to support 450 college students each year.
The family’s commitment to scholarship is straightforward. Idaho’s future leaders, says Wise, will be those given the opportunity to learn. In addition, the foundation believes in creating opportunities for students who have talent, good grades, and determination, but lack the financial resources to continue their education.
Dedicated as the family is to Idaho, almost all the foundation’s support is directed in-state.
Recently, however, the foundation made a generous gift to UW Medicine to establish the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation Endowed Scholarship for Idaho Medical Students, a gift leveraged by the University of Washington’s Students First matching initiative.
The scholarship was created to help secondyear students like D. J. Perry, of Rexburg, Idaho, who recently moved to Seattle with his wife and three children to continue his medical training.
This transition is typical for many students who complete their first year of medical school at other sites in Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho — the School of Medicine’s WWAMI region — then relocate to Seattle for their second year.
In preparing for the move, Perry was excited, but also stressed by all the change and the expense of a medical education. In contrast, he says, “scholarships are a comfort.”
Third-year student Rebecca Allred, who made the move to Seattle from Idaho last year, points out another source of stress: loan debt.
“I think that rising costs can influence a person’s career choice,” she says. “It’s sad to think that earning power may influence people away from fields where there is a greater need,” says Allred.
Scholarships, which help alleviate students’ reliance on loans, can help remedy the situation. “Scholarship support has definitely relieved some of the stress that I felt about my ever-increasing educational debt,” Allred says.
The Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation’s trustees have specific hopes for students like Perry and Allred: that these students will come back to practice medicine in Idaho. There’s a definite need for them. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, Idaho is ranked 49th among all U.S. states in physicians per capita.
There’s also reason to think that the foundation’s investment in scholarships for Idaho students will be rewarded. Since the WWAMI program began, 50 percent of WWAMI students from Idaho have returned home to practice. And in the past 20 years, nearly 50 percent of the School’s students from WWAMI states have chosen to pursue careers in primary care. Given that 35 percent of the population in the WWAMI region lives in rural, medically underserved areas that need primary care practitioners, this is very good news.
In addition to educating more medical students from Idaho, Wise has another hope for the scholarship — that generosity will breed generosity; that service will foster service. If D. J. Perry is any indication, she won’t be disappointed.
Although Perry isn’t sure what field he wants to pursue, this scholarship recipient is planning to return to Idaho to practice. And he looks forward to being in the position to help others who, like him, will depend on scholarships to finance their dreams.
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