UT Southwestern recently joined the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award program, making it possible for medical school applicants to win scholarships after performing volunteer service with AmeriCorps.

Through AmeriCorps, volunteers provide service in the U.S. such as disaster relief after hurricanes and tornadoes; mentorship to children; or helping veterans find jobs, among other efforts. In return, volunteers receive a modest living allowance, health benefits, and skills-based training.

The Segal AmeriCorps Education Award is a potential benefit earned by those who serve in AmeriCorps. Students selected by AmeriCorps to receive the Segal Award are then considered by UT Southwestern Medical School for a matching scholarship. The Segal Award amount is equal to the maximum allowed for a Pell Grant recipient. This fiscal year, applicants can receive a Segal Award of up to $6,895 per year of AmeriCorps service, matched by UT Southwestern for another $6,895.

The current academic year marks the first for UTSW to participate in the program, with plans to offer two scholarships per year going forward. UT Southwestern Medical School applicants who provided AmeriCorps service can apply for the funding, after which a UTSW committee confirms the applicant’s eligibility and selects the most outstanding students for awards. Recipients continue to receive the UT Southwestern funding as long as they receive the Segal Award.

Siddhakshi Solanki, a second-year medical student, and Marium Khan, who last fall entered as a first-year medical student, were this year’s Segal Award recipients at UT Southwestern – $6,495 to each for the fiscal year.

Melet Leafgreen, Director of Student Financial Aid, said the institution decided to offer the Segal Awards after receiving a letter from Ms. Solanki, who was surprised UTSW didn’t already have them.

When Ms. Solanki learned she was one of the first to receive the scholarship at UTSW, she was shocked. As a second-year student, she ordinarily would not qualify since the scholarship is intended for incoming students. She later learned that UT Southwestern made it possible for her to receive funding due to her role in convincing UTSW to become a matching institution.

“It was such a happy surprise, and I was so grateful when I was told that I would receive the scholarship,” she said.

Ms. Solanki served as a student success coach in Dallas for AmeriCorps, volunteering with schools to serve as a mentor, tutor, and role model.

Upon finishing her one-year AmeriCorps service, Ms. Solanki planned to go to medical school and apply for a Segal Award. When she learned UT Southwestern did not offer the scholarships at that time, she wrote to the Financial Aid office about the program. “I felt like it would encourage people who chose to spend a year serving AmeriCorps to attend UT Southwestern,” she said.

After UT Southwestern decided to become a matching institution due in part to Ms. Solanki’s email, the University decided to allow her to receive the scholarship in the program’s initial year, Ms. Leafgreen said.

Career aspirations

Ms. Solanki said she is leaning toward working in pediatrics after she graduates – an aspiration she developed after working with children for AmeriCorps – and would like to remain in Dallas. “I’d like to stay at UT Southwestern because I love the Dallas community and the programs here,” she said.

Ms. Khan volunteered with AmeriCorps as an outreach coordinator at Homeward Bound, a nonprofit for low-income individuals recovering from addiction and mental illness. Born and raised in Islamabad, Pakistan, Ms. Khan said she experienced some of the challenges commonly faced by immigrants after she moved to Dallas.

“I’ve experienced some of the barriers many communities face to receiving care, and so I wished to serve these communities,” she said. “I wanted to start locally, by learning about and serving those living in my own Dallas neighborhoods.”

Ms. Khan said her year at Homeward Bound gave her insight into how mental illness and substance use disorders ravage impoverished and homeless communities.

After completing medical school, she hopes to work to reduce inequities in the health care system.