Rural Medical School Program – Athens, OH

The Rural and Urban Scholars Pathways (RUSP) program helps prepare medical students to practice in underserved areas, both urban and rural. Through classroom preparation, rural and urban clinical experiences, and specialized professional development opportunities, this co-curricular program provides students with the depth and breadth of knowledge needed to meet patients’ health care needs in areas most in need of primary care and generalist specialties of primary importance to rural and underserved communities.

Unique Features

  • RUSP is one of only four medical school programs in the nation that explicitly combines a rural and urban focus in one program.

Additional Information

RUSP students:

  • Participate in Clinical Jazz, a longitudinal small group experience in leadership development and peer coaching with a focus on competencies for practice in an underserved setting, experiential place-based learning, and mentorship
  • Meet once per semester for an individualized education planning session with an assigned coach
  • Attend professional development workshops focused on (1) skill-building for a broad scope of practice, (2) problem solving with invited guests, and (3) other active exploration of issues relevant to rural and urban underserved practice
  • Engage in immersion experience between first and second years in a setting of relative austerity (possibly a global health experience)
  • Spend at least six months or the equivalent of curricular time in a rural or urban underserved setting
  • Complete a scholarly project relevant to the health of rural and urban underserved communities

RUSP students may be eligible to receive a scholarship upon successfully completing the RUSP program and placing in a primary care residency in Ohio.

Location