Bako Medical Education Foundation grows endowment to over $120,000 for WesternU College of Podiatric Medicine students
Western University of Health Sciences College of Podiatric Medicine (CPM) received a gift of $100,000 from the Bako Medical Education Foundation (BMEF) to increase an existing endowment. A previous gift of $20,000 funds a $1,000 annual scholarship and the new gift will raise that number substantially. The latest multi-year grant is subject to certain conditions.
“We appreciate this remarkable support from Bako,” said CPM Associate Dean V. Kathleen Satterfield, DPM. “Student loan debt is a significant challenge to podiatric medical students and this money will directly benefit many of them, helping them to pursue their dreams of becoming podiatric physicians and surgeons.”
WesternU CPM is the newest of nine colleges of podiatric medicine nationwide and the curriculum is taught in a unique way. CPM students learn alongside their osteopathic medical school colleagues for the first two years, receiving podiatric-specific courses when the DO students receive osteopathic practice and principles. For the rest of the curriculum, the DPM students are embedded in the osteopathic curriculum learning all of the body systems, including behavioral medicine, reproduction and dermatology.
“We teach whole-body medicine,” said CPM Interim Dean Lester J. Jones, DPM, MS. “We are graduating a physician with a specialty in podiatric medicine, ready to enter a three-year, hospital-based residency. It is a cutting-edge, 21st century medical education and that is what Bako Diagnostics, BMEF’s sponsor, does as well. They are an innovative company that continually changes the way we practice whether it is performing small fiber nerve biopsies or doing genetic testing. We are grateful to the Bako Medical Education Foundation for this partnership.”
“The Foundation is pleased to provide this grant to WesternU,” said Steven J. Berlin, DPM, FACFAS, a Foundation Board Member and Grants Committee Chair at the Bako Medical Education Foundation. “We recognize the important role that WesternU plays in educating and training our future clinicians and we are honored to play a small role to further this important endeavor.”
