Resources for Alumni: Bank of America Fellowship Program Application

General Description

Established in 2001, the Bank of America Community Fellows Program enables Bank of America to play a pivotal role in encouraging Brown Medical School graduates to pursue community service careers in health care. Bank of America's commitment to supporting programs that benefit the communities it serves and Brown Medical School's mission of training socially responsible physicians form the cornerstone for this partnership.

The primary goal of the Bank of America Community Fellows Program is to recognize Brown Medical School graduates who personify the values of the socially responsible physician as defined in the School's mission statement. The program helps to ease the educational debt of these graduates so that they may continue to serve their communities. Each year, five to ten Bank of America Community Fellows are selected to receive up to $20,000 toward the repayment of their educational loans. Bank of America is particularly interested in supporting graduates who are providing services to low and moderate income areas in the communities where Bank of America operates.

Eligibility

Brown Medical School graduates with outstanding educational loans are eligible to apply for the Bank of America Community Fellows Program. Preference is given to the repayment of outstanding institutionally-based loans from Brown Medical School. Graduates who were selected as Bank of America Community Fellows in prior years may apply, but preference is given to individuals who did not receive support from the Program in prior years.

Loans eligible for repayment are listed below. Institutionally-based loans are identified with an asterisk:

• Alternative Student Loans (e.g., MedAchiever Loan, CitiAssist Loan)
• Brown Medical School Loans (e.g., Ellwood, Medical, Casperson, Plitt/Anderson, Tarandi Loans) *
• Consolidation Loans
• Health Education Assistance Loans
• Health Professions Student Loans (HPSL) and Primary Care Loans (PCL) *
• Educational loans from other colleges, universities and medical schools
• Loans for Disadvantaged Students (LDS) *
• Perkins Loans (formerly National Direct Student Loans or NDSL) *
• Stafford Student Loans (formerly Guaranteed Student Loans or GSL)
• Supplemental Loans for Students (SLS)

Selection Criteria

Applications are reviewed by a panel of Brown Medical School faculty, administrators, students and other health care professionals. Selection criteria include: service to and impact on one's community, service to underserved and/or special populations, volunteer and leadership activities, career choice(s), length of service and economic hardship. Preference will be given to graduates who are providing services in communities where Bank of America operates.

Annual Awards

Bank of America Fellows may receive up to $20,000 in loan repayments. The amount of the award depends upon the strength of the application and the outstanding balance of the recipient's educational loans. Brown University checks are payable directly to the recipient's lender in December of 2004. Copies of the correspondence are mailed to the Bank of America Fellow concurrent with the payment. The loan repayment does not represent taxable income to the recipient.

Application Requirements

To be considered for the Bank of America Community Fellows Program, the following materials are required:

• A completed Bank of America Community Fellows Program Application, which is available on line in PDF Format or from the Medical School's Admissions and Financial Aid Office;
• Current curriculum vitae or resume;
• Two letters of recommendation from department chairs, supervisors, community leaders, or other individuals of the applicant's choice. These letters should be mailed directly to the Brown Medical School Admissions and Financial Aid Office by the recommender..

Notification Process

The deadline for receipt of the application and other materials is Friday, October 31, 2004. Awards will be announced in December 2004.

For more information, please contact:

Brown Medical School
Office of Admissions and Financial Aid
97 Waterman Street, Box G-A212
Providence, RI 02912-9706
MedSchool_Admissions@brown.edu
(401) 863-1142

Mission Statement

The medical program at Brown University has two major goals for its graduates: that they be broadly and liberally educated men and women, and that they view medicine as a socially responsible human service profession.

We seek graduates who regard medicine as a noble profession rather than a trade to be learned, as a humanitarian pursuit, as well as a scholarly discipline, and as a unique lifetime experience. Our graduates must be scientifically well-educated, but also capable of approaching problems from a variety of perspectives, drawing upon the methods of analysis of the humanist, the social scientist and the behavioral scientist. We intend that our students follow in the altruistic tradition of medicine, placing the welfare of their patients and society above self-interest. We teach our students to view the boundaries of medicine to be wide, encompassing all of the factors that lead to human disease, including those of a social, cultural, and economic nature. We exhort our students to act upon these values by engaging themselves actively in the community, exerting leadership by responding to the needs of those they serve.

In pursuit of these goals, Brown has integrated premedical and medical education into a seamless eight-year continuum to ensure that M.D. recipients from Brown will have been exposed to a wide, sensitizing view of the human condition from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The result is a "liberal" medical education supported by the entire faculty of a great University, from which the Program derives its name.

These goals require significant departures from convention in both the process and anticipated outcome of medical education. Problem-solving experience based on real-world issues is an important pedagogical requirement; the social sciences and humanities assume greater importance; measures of outcome, including values and attitudes as well as knowledge and skill, become more relevant than conventional course requirements; and communication skills across cultures, ages and socioeconomic barriers must be honed.