A future with endless possibilities

This story was published in the spring 2024 issue of 12th & Marshall. You can find the current and past issues online.

What could be more thrilling for aspiring physicians than finding out they have been accepted to medical school?

Learning that those four years will be tuition-free.

Thanks to a generous gift from JAMES W. and FRANCES G. MCGLOTHLIN, 12 students from the Class of 2027 received that life-changing news last summer as they prepared to begin their journey into a career in medicine. The gift enabled the medical school to provide more scholarship funding in the 2023-24 academic year than ever before in the history of the school.

“I was initially in shock and complete disbelief,” says inaugural McGlothlin scholar CHARLES PAYNE, MS’23 (PHIS). “My wife was out of town so I video-called her so that she could read the letter herself and confirm that I wasn’t crazy. We both just cried. The feelings were nearly overwhelming.”

Payne, who also earned his undergraduate degree at VCU, has worked as a paramedic in the emergency department on the MCV Campus. With plans to become a trauma surgeon, he aims to advocate for advancements in resuscitative and emergency surgery to continue to improve patient outcomes.

His commitment represents the determination and drive that the McGlothlins had in mind when they created the scholarships, whose awardees are selected for their academic excellence and capacity for leadership.

“We expect these students to become the next generation of innovators in medical science,” the McGlothlins said of the transformational gift. “Our vision and mission are to graduate physicians who will serve our country and its citizens at the highest level of care.”

By providing financial security for the students, the scholarships help the medical school recruit talented applicants.

“Most students, especially our top candidates, have a choice of which school they will attend,” says Dean of Medicine ARTURO P. SAAVEDRA, M.D., PH.D., MBA. “As a result, some choose to study at schools that offer the most competitive scholarship packages. By partnering with the McGlothlins, we can provide meaningful scholarship support to continue to attract the best and brightest.

“It also means these medical students can choose a career they love without being tied to any financial consequence. This historic gift goes beyond a legacy in giving. This is a legacy in career building, taking care of patients and giving back to our communities. It’s a legacy that will endure.”

A decade of taking down debt

The McGlothlin scholarships mark a continuation of the momentum created by supporters of the School of Medicine’s 1838 Campaign, many of whom are alumni. Started in 2013 and named for the school’s founding year, the seven-year campaign raised endowed scholarship funds as part of an effort to reduce student debt.

The campaign generated $28 million in new endowed scholarship funding, creating 78 new endowed scholarships and expanding 50 existing scholarships. As a result, the number of full or half-tuition scholarships at the medical school increased by 1,200%.

New gifts and wise stewardship of invested funds help endowment values grow over time, says MARGARET ANN BOLLMEIER, president and CEO of the MCV Foundation.

“Over the last 10 years, generous donors have supported the School of Medicine’s scholarship program at unprecedented levels,” she says. “At the MCV Foundation, we are committed to nurturing those gifts through our proven financial management strategies.”

The foundation manages the philanthropic gifts made by donors to ensure that the School of Medicine and all of its MCV Campus partners remain at the forefront of excellence and innovation in patient care, education and research. 

That support has translated to real-life impact for medical students. The percentage of students with medical school debt is down to 65%, and the overall student indebtedness has decreased by 13% to an average of $190,000. While still a large sum, student debt in the School of Medicine has been lower than the national average in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

The future looks bright

A good story always includes who, what, when, where, why and how.

The who began with the McGlothlins and their $25 million gift to the School of Medicine in 2011 to show their gratitude for neurosurgeon HARRY F. YOUNG, M.D. Their lead gift helped create the James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Medical Education Center — a place where medical students experience a new era of medical education in how they learn through a completely renovated curriculum.

“The McGlothlins have made a monumental difference at this institution and their impact goes way beyond our campus,” says VCU President MICHAEL RAO, PH.D. “Our partnership really keeps us at the forefront of medical education excellence and it inspires us to achieve our greatest potential.”

When the MMEC opened in 2013, its success also would not have been possible without the alumni who rallied around the project and made significant contributions to support the what: the medical school’s mission to improve health through exceptional and innovative discovery, training and patient care.

And it all comes down to the why: the students. Together, the McGlothlins and scores of alumni support the next generation of physicians and future leaders who will change health care and the world from the launching pad of the MCV Campus.

“We’re incredibly grateful to Fran and Jim McGlothlin for all of their support,” Saavedra says. “They do so much for our School of Medicine and our students. The impact of their vision and philanthropy can be seen everywhere on our campus — from the McGlothlin Medical Education Center to the exceptional faculty they support through endowed chairs to the outstanding McGlothlin scholars.”

Scholarships not only relieve student debt, Saavedra adds, but provide powerful encouragement to students who say the scholarship is evidence that someone believes in them.

“I will never truly be able to express how thankful I am,” Payne says. “I hope that I can show my gratitude throughout my career by consistently providing nothing short of excellent care and compassion to every person I encounter. I will never forget this kindness and will do all that I can to pay it forward and make medical school more accessible.”

And the story continues …

Meet 3 McGlothlin scholars

Charles Payne

Working on an ambulance offered CHARLES PAYNE, MS’23 (PHIS), an invaluable education in humanity. 

A Richmond, Virginia, EMT for more than a decade, Payne recalls that running calls all over the city was both gratifying and grounding. He enjoyed the fast pace of emergency care and that no two days or nights were ever the same. He loved the immediacy of helping people without regard to their status and he learned how to relate to them and make them feel better — lessons that had nothing to do with administering medicine.  

Payne moved from the ambulance to the emergency room five years ago when he became a certified paramedic and started working in the emergency department at VCU Medical Center. Now he’s embarked on the next leg of his life’s journey. Looking back over his first year of medical school at VCU, Payne says what struck him most was that while he has much to learn, his past experiences are already making a difference.   

“It can be very surprising how much you don’t know about medicine, about the foundations of it,” he says. “But the thing that has helped me the most is my experience with people and understanding how to interact with them, how to make them laugh when they’re in pain.”

Payne says he is the first member of his family to graduate college. That he is also becoming a doctor makes his rural West Virginia family proud. 

Regarding the McGlothlin scholarship, “it still doesn’t feel real,” Payne says. “Knowing it’s merit-based, it really has instilled confidence and laid a foundation for me to feel like someone has confidence in my abilities to be successful.”

The scholarship also means he and his wife can raise a family without lingering debt.

“The scholarship means so much it’s almost hard to quantify and it gains more value the more I sit with it,” Payne says, then adds: “I’m glad I was deemed worthy of such a gift and whatever influenced someone to pick me, I hope I continue to reinforce those values.” 

Manna Haile

For MANNA HAILE, it’s a toss-up between the head and the heart.

The Alexandria, Virginia, native says cardiology and psychiatry are among the areas of medicine that interest her the most thus far, but regardless of which path she chooses, creating personal connections with patients is her priority. 

A good doctor can save someone’s life, Haile notes, but medical care is just part of that. Getting to know patients as people beyond their medical needs, and creating safe, trusting environments for patients can unlock issues that impact their overall health. 

“That personal connection is really important,” she says, explaining that she saw those relationships firsthand with her father, a pediatrician, as she grew up.

“They looked up to him, and they drew pictures and would give them to him,” she says about his young patients. “It was definitely influential in seeing how doctors can create personal relationships with their patients and then seeing the effect it had on them. I want to be able to do that someday.” 

Equally moving is how scholarships impact their recipients. Namely, she says, they provide opportunities for people who otherwise would not have a chance to attend medical school and, beyond that, allow recipients the freedom to choose the specialty area that most interests them, rather than an area that will be the most lucrative, thereby providing resources to pay down debt the quickest.

“It’s a big confidence boost, but it’s also a lifetime of freedom,” she says. “I’m not sure yet what I want to do but having the time to figure it out takes the pressure off. I have the freedom to choose to go where I want to reach the most people.”

As she wraps up her first year, Haile says the anxiety she felt leading up to the school year last summer quickly dissipated, thanks in large part to her peers. 

“Everybody understands that it’s a big transition so they’re all kind and willing to lend a helping hand,” she says. “It’s competitive, but people work together, and we all understand that helping someone else is not going to pull you down.” 

Hisham Vohra

HISHAM VOHRA was young when his father, geriatrician MUHAMMAD I. VOHRA, M.D., H’01, opened a free clinic in their hometown in Pakistan. The third child of four and the only boy, Vohra didn’t know then the impact that such a place would have on throngs of people within that community, people who previously had little or no access to medical services. 

What he saw in the following years when his family returned for visits was the sense that the local community trusted his father, and that his father was doing good for those around him. 

That is what inspired Vohra to pursue medicine – following in his father’s footsteps just as his two older sisters had done. They are also medical students on the MCV Campus, where Hisham was born. 

Vohra says when he was notified via email that he received the McGlothlin scholarship, he thought he’d gotten it by accident. 

“I sent a screenshot to my sisters, and they were going crazy,” he says. “I was in denial for a while.”

He says the scholarship solidified his decision to earn his medical degree on the MCV Campus. 

“I’m happy to be near my family and I feel a lot less stressed about being in school,” says Vohra, who values preventative medicine and is leaning toward pediatrics. “I can go through distraction free and really just focus on what I’m passionate about rather than how am I going to pay back my loans.” 

He’s happy to be studying at an institution that’s such an integral part of its community with a wide variety of patients. He’s also interested in learning how medicine is practiced around the world, and he would like to explore other cultures to understand how the environment plays a role in health. “I want to make a difference,” Vohra says. “It’s hard for just one person to do that, but that’s my goal.”

If you would like to talk with someone about supporting scholarships in the medical school, please contact Nathan G. Bick, executive director of development, at ngbick@vcu.edu or (804) 827-0387.