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As the spread of COVID-19 in Southwest Michigan continues, WMed leaders have decided to postpone the 2022 Spring Gala and pivot to an exciting new donor engagement and giving opportunity, and a luncheon event that is tentatively planned for this fall.

“The rapid spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in Southwest Michigan is the reason we’ve decided pivot to a fall event,” said Jack Mosser, PhD, associate dean for Development and Alumni Affairs. “The medical school, as a medical education and healthcare provider, has to be conservative when planning events to ensure they are safe for our donors, as well as our students, alumni and employees.”

In place of the spring gala, WMed plans to host the WMed Catalyst Scholarship Celebration Day Luncheon, which will be held on Thursday, November 10, 2022, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Radisson Plaza Hotel & Suites in downtown Kalamazoo.

“What donors have been teaching us is that they like events where they can meet the medical students and participate in activities where they can make a difference in encouraging the ���ϲʿ���ֱ�� students on their path to becoming doctors,” Mosser said.

The new WMed Catalyst Scholarship Program was formally unveiled by Dr. Paula M. Termuhlen, the Hal B. Jenson ���ϲʿ���ֱ�� Dean, and Jonas Peterson, the new CEO of Southwest Michigan First, on Thursday, January 27, at Catalyst University in front of a group of Kalamazoo’s leading business, civic, and philanthropic leaders.

The new program is a significant innovation in national scholarship giving programs in medical education. Most colleges and universities require donors wishing to establish a scholarship to give hundreds of thousands of dollars and then often have them wait for years before a first award can be made. With the WMed Catalyst Scholarship Program, donors can have a named scholar for their business or organization with a gift as modest as $1,000 and have an immediate impact in helping a WMed student.

“Because we are such a young institution, we currently only have about a dozen endowed scholarships,” WMed Financial Aid Director Cathy Jones said. “The beautiful thing about this new scholarship program is it allows donors to have an immediate impact in helping our students. For every donor who gives $1,000 or more, the Office of Financial Aid will immediately match that donation with a WMed student on the basis of financial need. Every dollar that’s given will be awarded to our students.”

The Catalyst Scholarship Program was developed at the direction of Dr. Termuhlen, who encouraged Mosser and his team to find ways to help reduce medical school tuition costs for students through philanthropy. The first scholarships from the program are set to be awarded in July 2022 from donations that will be collected through the end of this fiscal year.

“This exciting new scholarship giving program will allow donors to help make the ���ϲʿ���ֱ�� program at WMed more affordable and will provide tangible ways for donors to help reduce the loan debt of WMed students,” Jones said. “That is significant.”

The Catalyst Scholarship Program fundraising campaign officially launched at Catalyst University on January 27 with an inaugural contribution of $100,000 from Charles C. Zhang and Lynn L. Chen-Zhang.

A $5,000 portion of the gift from the Zhangs will provide one ���ϲʿ���ֱ�� student with an immediate impact scholarship in 2022. The rest of their gift will establish a permanent endowment in their name to provide scholarships for medical students for decades to come.

“Through the Catalyst Scholarship Program,” Mosser said, “donors will have the opportunity to fund immediate impact scholarships that are need-based, as well as scholarships specifically for students who come from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the field of medicine.

Every donor to this program will be helping to educate the next generation of physician leaders in our country.”

“We hope all of the regular supporters of the medical school’s spring gala will discover the joy of participating in this groundbreaking new program,” Mosser added. “We look forward to seeing everyone at the luncheon this fall.”

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