Wabash General Hospital Foundation Medical Student Scholarship Program

The Wabash General Hospital Foundation offers a Scholarship Program to students who are attending medical school. This program is designed to financially assist medical students while they are in school in exchange for them to return as Wabash General Hospital physicians.

The WGH Foundation currently has eleven scholarship students in the program.

• Maaz Ahmed
  • Maaz is a second-year medical student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He chose to become a doctor because he wants to treat people going through injuries and teach people to live healthy lifestyles. He completed his master’s in clinical informatics at the NYU Langone School of Medicine and would like to bring new medical technologies into the hospital. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with loved ones, camping, and relaxing on the lake.
• Marilyn Chakkalamuri
  • Marilyn is about to begin her fourth and final year of medical school. She has chosen Family Medicine as her specialty, and she looks forward to matching into a residency program. Outside of rotations and board studying, she enjoys spending time with friends and family.
• Brandon Fickling
  • Brandon has finished his first school year at the University of Tennessee. He enjoyed having the opportunity to learn and grow a great deal. He is looking forward to the next three years as he transitions from the classroom to the hospital setting and apply all that he has learned. Outside of school, he plays sports with his classmates, whether basketball, pickleball, volleyball, or any sport you can think of. He also has tried to stay active in the community and volunteer at a student-run clinic for Spanish speakers as a suture tech in the trauma unit. This summer, Brandon went to Uganda for five weeks to work on a research project aimed to destigmatize mental health in the country and improve its healthcare system. After that, he spent time at home with his family. He is excited for what the next three years have in store.
• Eryn Gould
  • School is still going well for Eryn. She finished her second year and passed her Step 1 exam. At the beginning of July, she started all of her core clerkship rotations in the hospital. She is very excited to finally get the chance to apply the knowledge she has learned over the past two years.
• Wyatt Nelson
  • Wyatt finished his third year of medical school and began filling out his residency application. He is applying to an Orthopaedic Surgery residency and looks forward to seeing where he ends up. This fall, he will be traveling around the country to various programs to try to find his best fit. When he is not scrubbed into the OR, he has been busy being the Chief Research Director for the University of Louisville’s orthopaedic program. He looks forward to this next chapter of his life and cannot wait to come back and serve the people in the tri-state area.
• Dr. Garret Ni
  • Dr. Ni is completing his Otolaryngology, also known as Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT), residency at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. He recently matched for a fellowship in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at UCLA. He chose to become an ENT doctor because he enjoys helping patients with a diverse range of diseases and performing surgery. In addition to a keen interest in the anatomy of the head and neck, Dr. Ni also has a passion for advancing the field of ENT through research. He has published over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles as well as book chapters and has given multiple presentations at national meetings. During his spare time, he enjoys traveling, playing the piano, and spending time with his wife, Jessica, and their two children, Bennett and Clara.
• Sophie Rohleder
  • Sophie is in her third year at Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine. She took her boards on June 30^th. She is currently interested in the endocrine, but she is interested in what else she finds fascinating over the next two years of rotations.
• Megan Saltsgaver
  • Megan has completed her first year of medical school. She has enjoyed her time in school with her classmates. This summer, she has been traveling, spending time with the people she loves, and completing a research fellowship through UIC on obstructive sleep apnea. She has enjoyed getting involved in UIC and the Rockford community. She serves as a board member for UIC’s Medical Student Ambassadors, which helps with recruitment for Rockford’s campus and she helped plan the incoming M1 orientation in August. She has been volunteering with Rockford CASA, an organization that supports children in the court system. Megan is thankful for her family and friends, Wabash General Hospital, and the Mt. Carmel community for their endless support.
• Sydney Shan
  • Sydney has finished her first year of internal medicine residency at Advocate Christ Medical Center. Aside from working in the ICU and general medical floors in the hospital, she has been researching and presenting at various conferences. Her most recent conference was the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology in Seattle, Washington. Sydney has two more years of residency left. She then plans on doing a fellowship in endocrinology.
• Brianna Trimble
  • Brianna has finished her first year of medical school and is looking forward to beginning year two this fall. During this year, she has had the opportunity to become one of the school’s Rural Health Professions students. This program aims to increase the number of practicing physicians in rural areas by exposing students to rural medicine early on in their training. Additionally, she applied and was accepted to the James Scholar program. This research program for medical students connects students with mentors to aid them in developing, completing, and publishing personal research projects. Her research is on assessing the relationship between depression and epilepsy in patients in medically underserved areas. Brianna is grateful for the scholarship opportunities provided by the WGH Foundation and their role in making medical education more accessible.
• Matthew Waltz
  • Matthew started his third-year clinical rotations in May. He has enjoyed working with patients daily. This is an important time for him as he is rotating through various specialties over the next year will help him decide which specialty he would like to pursue. He looks forward to doing an Orthopaedics rotation at WGH this Fall.

If you want to support Wabash General Hospital Foundation’s Medical School Scholarship Program, please contact dstevens@wabashgeneral.com. Donating to the WGH Foundation provides the resources necessary to offer exceptional patient care and improve the future of healthcare in our community and surrounding areas.

If you know of a student who would be interested in joining this program, please email kturner@wabashgeneral.com.