GRAND FORKS: The UND College of Medicine and Health Sciences Indians Into Medicine (INMED) program is launching a comprehensive $1 million campaign, the largest campaign of its kind for indigenous medical education.
“For nearly 50 years, this program has led the nation in training indigenous physicians,” INMED Director Dr. Don Warne said in a press release. “Unless our students are offered one of a limited number of scholarships, most of which only go up to a certain point, they pay full tuition like everyone else. Therefore, we are always looking for ways to be more efficient in our operations and expand our fan base. This campaign will help us do both.”
Timed to coincide with the program’s 50th anniversary in 2022-23, the comprehensive campaign hopes to generate funds that will directly support many of INMED’s various programs.
Founded in 1973, UND’s Indians Into Medicine Program was one of the first university programs in the country dedicated to cultivating and producing indigenous physicians and other health providers. In 50 years, the program has graduated nearly 300 American Indian/Alaska Native physicians and countless other healthcare providers: physical and occupational therapists, medical laboratory scientists, physician assistants, and public health professionals.
“Our goal is to put INMED in the best position to help our students with all their needs during their academic career at UND,” said Dr. Daniel Henry, co-director of INMED. “We help our students with technology needs, test preparation, skill building, textbooks, tutoring, monitoring, research opportunities, and much more. And all of this is getting more expensive, all the time.”
The campaign will run until April 20, 2023, at which point the campaign ends with a celebration at the Time Out Wacipi 2023 powwow event on the UND campus, according to the press release.
The INMED program provides not only direct support to indigenous doctors and students of other health professions at UND, but also to pre-university students and instructors through programs such as:
- Summer Institute (SI), a program where students in grades 7-12 live together on the UND campus while learning about science and healthcare.
- Med Prep, a summer program for American Indian seniors and college graduates who are preparing to take or retake the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and apply to medical school.
- Career and Life Instruction for Matriculation Building, a summer program for incoming INMED medical students designed to help new medical students acclimate to the rigors and culture of medical school and develop a sense of community before the start of classes.
- Native Educator University Research Opportunity in Neuroscience (NEURO), a professional development program for high school teachers that places them in a UND Department of Biomedical Sciences research laboratory in the College of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Alexandria McLearen is one of those future physicians who benefited from INMED’s many programs even before entering an MD program, according to the release.
“It was during the MCAT prep program that I first felt like I could really imagine myself as a medical student, because for the first time in my life, I had met indigenous doctors and medical students,” McLearen said. “Until then, I was walking down the road without any guidance or support, not really expecting to get to an MD program. INMED has been the key to my success even before I applied to medical school.”
Anyone interested in contributing to the campaign can contact Jeff Dodson, AAF Development Director at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences, at [email protected] or 701-777-5512.