A longtime employee of the University of Mississippi Medical Center hopes a scholarship he and his wife established will relieve the financial burdens faced by many medical students while also supporting those who recruit new med school candidates.
Steven Case retired from UMMC in 2015 after a 35-year career on the faculty, beginning as an assistant professor of biochemistry and ending as associate dean for medical school admissions. As such, he gained deep knowledge of students’ financial hardships and the limited availability of scholarships.
With a $250,000 gift to Ole Miss, Case and his wife, Gay, established the Steven T. and Gay Case Medical Student Scholarship Endowment.
In addition to supporting students, the couple envisions the endowment giving more leverage to the UMMC admissions committee as it works to recruit incoming medical students who contribute to the diversity of their class in terms of demographic and personal attributes and varied life experiences.
“While calling out the name of each entering first-year medical student at the annual welcoming White Coat Ceremony, I often reflected on the diverse backgrounds from which these students came, ranging from children of medical school alumni to those who were the first in their families to attend college,” Case recalled. “Each traveled a unique path that contributed to the attributes and life experiences that the admissions committee saw in their potential to become both competent and compassionate physicians.”
Dr. LouAnn Woodward, Case’s former student and now vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine at UMMC, expressed gratitude for the couple’s gift.
“I want to thank Gay and Steven for their vision to support medical education in our state, strengthening our efforts to train Mississippi’s physician workforce for generations to come,” the vice chancellor said. “I’m not surprised that they would make this type of thoughtful gift. I’ve known Steven since I was in medical school, and he’s always shown himself to be a champion for the education of compassionate, well-trained physicians.”
In 1979, when the couple moved to Jackson, Mississippi, to accept Case’s first position at UMMC, they thought it would be a three-year stint. Twenty years later, Steven Case found he had taught and advised hundreds of first-year medical students, directed a research laboratory and trained several Ph.D. students.
In 2000, he was given the opportunity to change careers while keeping the same parking spot.
“Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and Medical School Dean Wallace Conerly, MD, allowed me to change from a teaching and research position to full-time administration as associate dean for medical school admissions,” Case said. “This event was pivotal to my decision to remain at UMMC rather than accept a position elsewhere.”
Case’s final 15 years at UMMC entailed recruiting medical school applicants and chairing the medical school admissions committee. He also chaired the Association of American Medical College’s national Committee on Admissions and served as a national spokesperson for holistic admissions review.
“Our three-year experiment expanded to three generations of family being raised in Mississippi,” Case said. “Our two children graduated from Ole Miss and our son’s three daughters are now enrolled there.”
Case knows first-hand how meaningful scholarships can be to students.
In 1965, using student loans and some money from his parents, he became the first in his family to go to college. While pursuing a bachelor’s degree in biology at Pennsylvania Military College – now Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania – he met his future wife, who was enrolled in the Hahnemann Hospital School of Nursing in Philadelphia and lived in nearby Ridley Park.
Case continued his higher education at Wilkes College, where he earned a master’s degree in 1971 and in 1974, he earned a Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology at the University of Southern California.
“After a decade of retirement and reflection on this journey, my wife and I decided to endow a scholarship to acknowledge the decades of support that I received from the UMMC leadership during the research and administrative portions of my career and the role that Ole Miss played and is continuing to play in the education and development of our children and grandchildren,” Case said.
For more about his career at UMMC, click here.
To support the University of Mississippi Medical Center, visit http://www.umc.edu/givenow/ or contact Meredith Aldridge, executive director of development, at mmaldridge@umc.edu or 601-815-7469.
By Bill Dabney/UM Foundation