USD Sanford School of Medicine Program Aids Native American Students

VERMILLION, S.D. – The University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine has been awarded $446,671 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to help Native American students on the Pine Ridge and Yankton reservations.

The grant, from the HHS' National Workforce Diversity Pipeline Program, funds the first year of the medical school's multi-year Native American Healthcare Scholars Program. That effort provides career and academic mentoring as well as career awareness-building activities for selected upper-level high school students from the Red Cloud High School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and Wagner Community School on the Yankton Indian Reservation.

The Native American Healthcare Scholars Program is a part of the school's strategic diversity plan and contributes to its efforts to further diversify health care professions, said Gerald J. Yutrzenka, associate dean for diversity and inclusion.

"We are working to assist Native American high school students who have demonstrated an interest in becoming a physician or in pursuing careers in one of the other health care professions. If the program’s Native American high school students decide to attend USD, which we hope they will all do, we will then have the opportunity to continue to foster their development as they move along their career path," he said.
 
The USD program to help identify, mentor and encourage young Native Americans to pursue careers in health care begins this year and will continue into 2020.

– About the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine
The University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine is nationally known for excellence in medical education. With its award-winning curriculum, the school prepares medical students to practice in all fields of medicine and is particularly recognized for its reputation in family medicine and in rural medicine. In addition to the M.D., the school of medicine offers graduate degrees in basic biomedical science, sustains a vibrant and forward-looking research agenda, and is home to the interdisciplinary Center  for Brain and Behavioral Research. http://www.usd.edu/medicine

– About The University of South Dakota
Founded in 1862, the University of South Dakota is designated as the only public liberal arts university in the state and is home to a comprehensive College of Arts and Sciences, School of Education, the state’s only School of Law, School of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, the accredited Beacom School of Business and the College of Fine Arts. USD has an enrollment of more than 10,000 students taught by more than 400 faculty members.