Philippine medical schools experience a declining student application and consequently, student enrollment. This is primarily caused by the current Philippine economic status which drives students to seek for degrees of courses which are short-termed but promise of high salaries either locally or abroad. Leading courses offered by schools nowadays include B.S. Nursing, short caregiver or nurses’ aide course, and short English grammar and communi-cation skills courses. Worse, doctors and profess-ionals exchange their life’s passion for courses which guarantee great financial gain in a short span of time.
With the dilemma described, amazingly, a number of students still dream of a medical profession. It is a dream which entails determination, patience and hard work. A dream continuously hindered by reality in response to utmost need for financial stability. For those who choose to pursue such dream, it is a roller coaster ride that spins around monetary stability: tuition and fees, books, contributions, uniforms, equipments and the likes. Families and students alike suffer such formidable financial problems. True enough, there is explicitly a need for financial assistance.
Financial assistance and academic scholarships empower and secure students to pursue a medical career. This attracts compe-tent and financially challenged students to study in an equally skilled and outstanding medical school. For the financially challenged, this assures a probable bright future to their impoverished families. For the academic achievers, this inspires further drive for excellence.
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This scholarship promises a grater impact on the society as a whole. This will produce a socially oriented medical doctor, immersed in the reality and necessity for genuine service to others, who exerts all possible efforts to relieve the burden and sickness of his fellow. This doctor will serve as the first domino tile which will affect the rest of the dominoes in society.
UERMMMC has produced a lot of doctors in its 50 years of medical education. These doctors have established their respective niche not only in the Philippine medical society but internationally as well. These doctors have been dominoes themselves through their efforts to enhance and uplift the medical service to their country and to the world. They have earned not only material wealth, prestige and power but the fulfillment of their life’s passion. This fulfillment, which they will always owe to their alma mater, has driven alumni doctors to fund scholarships for financially challenged and outstanding students who would one day follow their footsteps – a new domino tile who will initiate and enhance the betterment of the sick and the needy.
Through the simple act of a scholarship funded by generous alumni, a student’s dream of pursuing a medical profession becomes a reality. It may not reverse the current trend in student enrollment but it ensures the continuity, integrity and quality of students and the UERMMMC medical education. Truly, this empowers students to become future dominoes who would instigate the upliftment of the people’s welfare in a poverty-stricken Philippines. Greggy Panga, Med. 2009
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