Signature Programs

AHEC Scholars

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Eligibility & Commitment | Benefits | Application Timeline | Partners

Program Overview

AHEC Scholars is an interprofessional program geared towards health profession students. AHEC Scholars is a longitudinal two-year program that exposes students to interdisciplinary didactic and community-based clinical or experiential training in rural and/or underserved area throughout Maryland. The program launched in July 2019.

A minimum of forty-five (45) Scholars will enroll each year, with fifteen (15) assigned to one of the regional centers: AHEC West, Central Maryland AHEC, or Eastern Shore AHEC. Students who are from disadvantaged/rural backgrounds, underrepresented minorities, and first-generation college students are strongly encouraged to apply.

Eligibility & Commitment

Applicants must:

• Be enrolled in a health professions degree program at an academic institution in the state of Maryland
• Be two years from program or degree completion in one of the following disciplines:
• Dentistry
• Medicine
• Nurse Practitioner
• Nursing (MSN/BSN)
• Pharmacy
• Physician Assistant
• Psychology (Graduate)
• Social Work
• Commit to two years in the program and a one-time program follow-up. Two-year commitment includes the following each year:
• 40 hours of community-based clinical or experiential training in rural and/or underserved; fulfilled by requirements of your discipline
• 40 hours of didactic education through interactive online modules and webinars, utilizing Blackboard, and in-person training opportunities on the student’s own time. The training will focus on the following eight Core Topic Areas:

Benefits

• Building their CV (opportunities to attend/speak at national conferences/events and join the National AHEC Board).
• Setting themselves apart from the competition for jobs, advanced degree programs, or residency programs (earn a Maryland AHEC Scholar Certificate of Completion, signifying an advanced accomplishment in interprofessional education and skills).
• Becoming an interprofessionally trained thought leader in your field and creating an invaluable network of mentors and colleagues.
• Working together with other disciplines, learning their roles and responsibilities.
• Enhancing their clinical/experiential training in rural and/or underserved areas throughout Maryland.

AHEC Scholars Application Timeline (2024-2025)

We are no longer accepting applications for Cohort 6.

How to Apply

Before proceeding, you must be prepared to submit the following documentation:

• Updated Resume/CV (upload to application below).
• Personal statement of 500 words or less: please discuss your interest in the AHEC Scholars Program and how this program might help you reach your career goals. Make sure to include any experiences in rural and/or underserved communities or interdisciplinary training you've had.

Partners

Geriatric Assessment Interdisciplinary Team (GAIT)

GAIT is a project funded by the University System of Maryland Redeployment Grant System and is located in rural Maryland at AHEC West (Cumberland, Md.) and the Eastern Shore Area Health Education Center (Cambridge, MD).

A series of one or two-day rotations introduces students from USM degree programs to comprehensive geriatric assessment and the fundamentals of interprofessional collaboration through both didactic and clinical sessions.

Students are introduced to the comprehensive geriatric assessment and the fundamentals of interprofessional collaboration through both didactic and clinical sessions. A variety of sites are used throughout Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore.

Each site is chosen because it emphasizes the benefits of interprofessional collaboration in caring for frail older individuals.

GAIT Presentation

Primary Care Track (PCT)

The University of Maryland School of Medicine Primary Care Track (PCT) started as a five year HRSA funded collaborative effort created to expose UMSOM medical students to careers in primary care. Since 2012, PCT has allocated incoming medical students with primary care physicians throughout the first two years of their medical school training. PCT has allowed students who show an early interest in primary care to better determine their ultimate career path. This longitudinal track allows for mentorship from family medicine physicians, general internists and general pediatricians while providing the interested student with an opportunity to learn via ongoing relationships with patients.

Students work alongside preceptors one half day per month during their pre-clinical years, and 80 hours in their first year summer with a primary care physician (PCP) mentor, through a collaboration with one of the three state AHECs. Along with these experiences with community physicians, students participate in monthly didactic sessions.

Approximately thirty percent of the first, second and third year class are enrolled in this program. To date, the PCT remains a collaborative program of the Departments of Family Medicine, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics.