UTRGV ‘pipeline programs’ welcome more med students

EDINBURG, Texas ( ValleyCentral ) — The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine is working to get more students into medicine, in hopes their efforts can help the Valley’s doctor shortage.

Medical students now have a variety of programs helping them though school. The Vaqueros Md program is one that tracks Valley high schoolers into UTRGV’s School of Medicine. Doctor Maurice Clifton with UTRGV says their mission is to welcome a wider range of Valley students.

“It’s basically a golden ticket to get into medical school,” Clifton said. “Instead of applying and competing against the 7000 applicants that we get every year, to have a special route just for them.”

UTRGV is also part of J.A.M.P., a state program supporting low-income students through Texas medical schools. Doctor Clifton says Texas is among the states with the lowest number of doctors and adds J.A.M.P.’s mission is the same as theirs on a state-wide scale.

He specifies that rural Texas is “especially needing for more doctors, so all these programs are really designed to help facilitate students getting into medical school in the state staying in the state and then becoming physicians here.”

He added that the two programs, and others like the Early Decision Program, have been a success for UTRGV, and pay for nearly all med student costs.

Medical student Bethany Wollman says she has J.A.M.P. to thank for her chance at medical school.

“There was nobody guiding me, and it seems like I was fighting uphill,” Wollman said. “But J.A.M.P. really changed the way things are playing out, and now, I am a first generation college student and a first generation medical student.”

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