Donor Recognition
BUILDING A HEALTHIER GEORGIA
Donors are investing in the School of Medicine’s new building and future students.
Georgia is 40th in the U.S. in physician-to-population ratio.
Nine Georgia counties have no doctor.
Nearly 1/3 of Georgia physicians are 60 or older and nearing retirement.
“Our goal is to provide substantial scholarship support for UGA’s first class of medical students”
Jonathan & Laurel Murrow
As construction crews raise the walls of the University of Georgia’s Medical Education and Research Building, future home to the UGA School of Medicine, university officials and donors are turning their attention to the individuals who will study within those walls—and how to make their education as affordable as possible.
State-of-the-art facilities will help attract students to the new school, but fellowships and other robust financial aid will help students manage the cost of a medical education. This will ensure that the best medical students have incentives to accept a place in the school’s first class.
“There’s a high cost to becoming a physician that keeps many qualified students from pursuing this dream. Jonathan and I were fortunate enough to benefit from scholarships along the way, and we’re excited to be able to help others,” says Dr. Laurel Murrow, associate professor of medicine for the Augusta University/UGA Medical Partnership.
Murrow and her husband, Dr. Jonathan Murrow, also a medical partnership faculty member, grew up in Georgia—Watkinsville and Farmington, respectively—but left the state to pursue their medical education.
The medical partnership, and now the School of Medicine, afforded them the chance to come back and support the health of their home state.
The Murrows’ commitment to Georgia’s health extends beyond work hours, however. The couple created the Murrow Family Scholarship Fund, which will support School of Medicine students who have overcome hardships.
“Growing up in Oconee County, we’ve seen firsthand that access to high-quality health care matters,” says Dr. Jonathan Murrow.
“We’re proud to invest in the School of Medicine and in Georgia’s future.”
The school aspires to enroll 60 students for its first class in fall 2026. To attract the most talented students (see right), and to help address Georgia’s medical shortfalls, UGA will continue to look to supporters who are ready to improve Georgians’ lives.
UGA is positioned to solve these problems. The university is the ninth- highest producer of medical school applicants in the United States. The new medical school not only gives these applicants the opportunity to stay in Athens, but it also makes it more likely that physicians will practice in Georgia.
Fifty percent of physicians who complete their undergraduate or graduate education in Georgia stay in the state, and that percentage jumps to 73% when that physician completes both degrees in the Peach State. Donors can increase those odds by creating scholarships or other student aid funds.
Medical students graduate with an average of more than $200,000 in student debt. That’s a significant burden, and closing that gap is why the School of Medicine is now focusing its fundraising efforts on scholarships.
But there’s another reason, too. The School of Medicine cannot recruit students until it receives preliminary accreditation, which isn’t expected to be awarded until the accrediting body, the LCME, meets next February. This means UGA will be on an incredibly tight timeline for recruiting the inaugural class—months after established schools have already been making offers.
Every new commitment to endow scholarships for UGA medical students now will help to make the dream of our first students—and future generations of Georgia physicians—a reality.
