‘Life-Changing’ Scholarships Set Medical Students Up for Success
Your support for Benefis Foundation scholarships or other special projects is an investment in the future of local healthcare – and the people who will provide it.
As she helps patients and their families during her shift in the Benefis Intensive Care Unit, medical student Leah Claus is developing the skills that she’ll use throughout her career.
“I learn so much on every shift in the ICU,” she said. “We have so much interaction with patients, answering questions from them and their families, ensuring they feel heard and building care relationships with them. It’s nice to be able to be there for them.”
Leah is part of the trailblazing inaugural class at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine Montana and will graduate in 2027. She’d like to become an internal medicine physician and her time on rotations in the ICU only confirmed that calling.
Because of scholarships from Benefis Foundation donors, Leah can focus more on her education and set a great foundation for what’s next.
“With the cost of medical education, with being newly married and moving from Arizona for this, the financial assistance from the scholarships is life-changing, providing day-to-day assurance we’ll be OK,” she said. “I don’t have to take out as much in loans, which accumulate over time so it’s extra thousands saved in borrowing costs. Oh my goodness, yes, it makes a difference.”
As Leah learned about the heart and lungs as an exercise physiology major during her undergraduate degree, she fell in love with the science of medicine. She’s always loved patient care.
“With how demanding this field can be, you really have to have passion for it. I have loved my rotations at Benefis,” she said. “It’s an affirmation I am in the right place moving in the right direction.”
Leah is inspired by the donors. She hopes to someday be able to pay it forward for the next generation of students.
“I hope to be able to be like them and make the same difference in people’s lives,” she said. “We will be forever grateful.”
