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Kenan Urban Primary Care Scholars Program

Program Components

The program consists of:

  • A six-week summer internship in an Urban area after your first year now in partnership with Wake Medicine in Raleigh
  • Weekly didactic for a deeper dive into health disparities & factors affecting health outcomes of the urban underserved population
  • Students are expected to design a project, conduct research, and present on a topic that impacts the urban underserved
Urban Scholars at Meals on Wheels Office
Urban Scholars at Meals on Wheels Office

During the summer internship, you will be assigned an individual preceptor who will guide you throughout the program. You will be given the opportunity to gain valuable clinical experience in a variety of settings with diverse underserved populations. In addition, to being placed within the Wake Med clinics, you will also have scheduled time with a wide variety of community-based organizations to receive a full picture of both the challenges urban underserved populations face in accessing care and the resources available to assist them.

Program Benefits

  • See first-hand the challenges the urban underserved face in accessing care
  • Understand the ways in which local community based organizations address health disparities
  • Engage in a close preceptor mentorship
  • Get a jump start on your peers gaining clinical practice experience

Tuition Reimbursement and Summer Stipend

To underscore your commitment to becoming an urban medicine scholar, you will receive $2,000 summer stipend (housing provided for summer experience)

For more information about the Urban Scholars Program, check out these pages:

About the Kenan Urban Primary Care Scholars Program

In 2013, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine (UNC SOM), The William R. Kenan Charitable Trust, and Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) collaborated to create the Kenan Urban Primary Care Scholars Program (formerly the Rural and Underserved Scholars Program). With the selection of ten scholars in 2018, the program has, and continues, to support fifty-four students seeking to serve in areas of primary care in rural North Carolina. Learn more about the Rural Experience here.

In partnership with Southeastern Area Health Education Center (SEAHEC), and partners around central North Carolina, the Kenan Urban Primary Care Scholars Program now offers opportunities across the state. The ultimate purpose of the program is to increase the number of UNC SOM students seeking rural health careers in North Carolina and to provide financial support and enrichment experiences to sustain their decisions.

Objectives and Goals

The Kenan Urban Primary Care Scholars Program inspires students from The University of NC School of Medicine to pursue rural, underserved patient practice in NC in primary care specialties. The KPCMS Program supports to explore the unique complexities of patient care in rural North Carolina. Creating connections with communities, practices, and providers, resources and other like-minded individuals. To address the needs of our state population, the program aims to populate underserved regions with well-trained doctors to address health care disparities.

Expansion Into Urban Experiences

The success of the rural experience program prompted an expansion to include scholars interested in urban underserved populations as well. Each of the opportunities offer a six-week summer externship giving students valuable hands-on experience serving our most vulnerable populations in North Carolina.