VCOM 2023 Annual Report

United Company Foundation Scholarship Fund is Making a Difference in Southwest Virginia

I n 2019, The United Company Foundation created a permanent endowed scholarship at VCOM with a challenge grant. As part of their commitment, the company said they would match, dollar-for-dollar, up to $1 million in gifts and pledges from additional donors to VCOM.

Foundation Scholarship are required to practice in specific counties or cities for at least three years after their residency, with the hope they will remain in the community after their service obligation. At the time of the initial grant, Lois Clarke, president of The United Company Foundation, said, “The foundation was motivated by what we saw as an enormous need for primary care physicians practicing in the region and inspired by VCOM’s mission to, and success in, solving the physician shortage in the Appalachian region, especially in rural and medically underserved communities.” The United Company Foundation Matching Gift Challenge will help to address what the foundation has identified as two enormous problems: a lack of access to healthcare in medically underserved counties in Southwest Virginia and the tremendous debt most medical students incur in their journey to become doctors. Since 2019, there have been seven recipients of The United Company Foundation Scholarship, who will return to fulfill the mission of VCOM and the foundation by expanding healthcare opportunities in the region. Nathaniel Shelburne, ’25 VCOM-Virginia, says he is grateful for the financial support from The United Company Foundation. “As a Southwest Virginia local, the support of The United Company Foundation has been both a financial blessing, and source of encouragement,” he says. “Receiving support from those within the community I will be serving is a true honor and feeds my desire to continue studying until I have become the physician my community needs.”

“Receiving support from those within the community I will be serving is a true honor and feeds my desire to continue studying until I have become the physician my community needs.”

—Nathan Shelburn

The grant provides financial assistance to medical students recruited from or who have an interest in providing care to medically underserved communities in Southwest Virginia. Recipients of The United Company

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