The Road To Medical School
Donation protected
CONTACT:
[email redacted]
PURPOSE:
This GoFundMe page has been established to assist with the financial burden of applying to medical college.
BACKGROUND (short):
My home, Granite county, is one of thirteen counties in Montana where there is no practicing physician. I am contributing to the solution for one of the societal challenges my future children will face. Medical care is non-existent in our county and severly limited in many others. I will be the prevention-focused, community physician our community needs.
BACKGROUND (long):
As life becomes more convenient, I feel a growing separation between the actions I choose and the consequences I feel. This distancing from tangible feedback obscures the learning process. Life in rural and remote areas bring with it a certain responsibility to myself and my dependents, and a respect and appreciation for the comforts of modernity.
After five years of quasi-vagabond adventuring and exploring the mountains in search of our chosen home, in 2015 my spouse and I purchased bare land in the Sapphire mountains of southwest Montana. In the following years, we built a home from materials found on the land, developed our creek for water supply, and continue to improve our homestead to supply resources for our own self-suffiency and the resilience of the community.
While saving money for our homestead and investigating a contemporary career in medicine and healing, I chose to be employed as an EMT and CNA in various hospitals as we did reconnaissance for compatible communities. As a well-adapted and flexible team member, I worked through the departments and journaled my experiences, asked questions, then observed some more. Shortly after deciding on our current and forever home, another decision was made. With the support of my spouse and family, I chose to attend university on a path to fill the vacuum of our town - the void of family-centered, whole-person healing and healthcare.
My experiences with rural and remote living are a daily reminder of how precious each life is. These feelings are not exclusive of a rural, minimalist lifestyle, but it is how I am best able to share life with my neighbors and connect with myself. I am an active participant in my life. It is my goal and aspiration to encourage my friends, neighbors, and future patients to be an active participant in theirs.
Finding such comfort in a wholesome life of minimalism was essential to me before continuing college education. There are no opportunities for a high-priced physician from the Big City in our town. With creativity and innovation, the possibilities for a physician who is flexible and compassionate are limitless.
Granite county is one of many such counties in the West where there is no physician. Our county operates a small community clinic where a nurse practitioner and a physician assistant share responsibility for the small window of available hours when they are not working outside the county.
CURRENT NEED:
I am fortunate to have FIVE interviews scheduled, FOUR are with my "first choice" schools. The total estimated cost to attend these FIVE interviews is (now more than) $2,144 (though I will not be changing the goal unless it is likely I attend all five interviews).
10 September 2018: Boise, Idaho
Fuel 950miles / 18mpg * $3 = $158
Hotel (Candlewood Inn) = $96
28 September 2018: Yakima, Washington
Fuel 950miles / 18mpg * $3 = $158
Hotel (Quality Inn) = $87
25 October 2018: Phoenix, Arizona
(There are only two direct flights to Phoenix from Missoula each week. I fly in Thursday morning, but the next return flight is Sunday: a total of three nights. The added $200 in hotel and rental car fees for two extra nights are less than the $400 difference in airfare to fly via Seattle and return Friday night.)
Fuel for friend to drop me at the airport, 150miles = $30
Airplane ticket (Allegiant) = $445
Rental car (Enterprise) = $152
Hotel (Quality Inn) = $313
28 October 2018: Spokane, Washington
Fuel 700miles / 18mpg * $3 = 117
Hotel (Comfort Inn) = $98
16 November 2018: Kirksville, Missouri
Fuel for friend to drop me at the airport, 150-miles = $30
Airplane ticket (United) = $527
Rental car (Enterprise) = $57
Hotel (Quality Inn) = $91
**If I accept an offer from a school before completing all interviews, I will cancel any remaining interviews and adjust the financial goal. Any monies beyond the goal will go towards the deposit for acceptance. The deposit varies by school but range from $1,500 to $2,500.
FUTURE NEEDS:
Should a medical college choose to offer me acceptance to their school, I will have 14-days to provide a deposit to hold my seat. This deposit is applied to my first year's tuition. This ranges from $1,500 to $2,500 depending on the school. I will update this section should I be offered acceptance.
Tuition ranges slightly but are around $53,000 per year for each of four years. Living expenses range between an estimated $1,200 per month to $4,000 per month, depending on location for a shared room or single apartment near campus and continuing my basic vegetarian diet. For the schools where I am scheduled to interview, the average cost-of-living for a student is $1,800 per month. This includes traveling 1-3 times per month across the Pacific Northwest for clinical rotations in years 2-4.
I estimate my cost of attendance to be approximately $298,000.
CONTINGENCY PLAN:
To pay for travel expenses for interviews, my fall-back plan is to pay using my credit card (27% interest).
To pay for the deposit, I will take a cash-advance on the same credit card.
Tuition will be funded through student loans, private or federally-subsidized. I will consider supplement loans for some living expenses.
If all costs are accrued through debt, I will consider working a Big City job with higher wage-potential. As early as can be achieved, I will pay-off my accrued debt and return home. I will investigate all options and opportunities to pay off a third-of-a-million dollars worth of student debt.
I will apply for the few scholarships available. Because physicians have a large earning potential, there are very few scholarships available for aspiring-physicians.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Below are two essays I have written as part of my medical college applications. I feel they are particularly illustrative of my goals and the source of motivation I use to overcome the challenges this enduring road presents.
1.) The past.
My father and I walked down the frost-heaved trail alongside the Big Quilcene river. I notice for the first time what he had become. The man who led my Boy Scout troop on 50-mile hikes every hot summer, the man who fed his family by hunting elk in the snow-covered mountains every winter, the man who inspired me to build an adventure of my life is nearing the end of his own.
As we approached the steep incline marking the end of the trail, I grew increasingly pessimistic about whether he could reach the crest. The man who taught his sons how to ford a swift river can now barely traverse a scenic walking path without assistance. The neuropathy in his legs caused by late-stage diabetes prevented him from feeling the roots that protrude from the earth. I caught him from falling twice when it was flat, I think to myself, how will he make it up an incline? My father remains positive. "One step at a time," he told me as he noticed my concern. One step at a time... He wanted to reach the overlook as much as I did, probably more so. He was not blind to his dim prognosis. As we neared the top of the rise, the salmonberry coated in hoarfrost transitioned to damp huckleberry thawing in the morning sun. How many more Father's day hikes would we share?
We left the dark chill of the forest behind and basked at the edge of the valley carved by thousands of years of flowing water. "I told you we could do it" he coughed, out of breath. We stood together cherishing every second as the sun rose over the Olympics. The silence was deafening. My heart grew heavy. That was the last time we shared this bonding experience.
For many years, my father failed to receive adequate care from his primary care physician because wait times pushed appointments farther and farther apart. The physician cared greatly about his patients, but contact time grew shorter and shorter as the generations age and their providers age, too. Rural physicians own many responsibilities. They also bring opportunity to help build lives of enjoyment, longevity, and adventure. If more physicians were available in my father's town, he might still be hiking with his sons today. I will be the prevention-focused physician my community needs and part of the solution my father didn't have.
Prior to his waning health, my father was employed as an EMT. He routinely held training and seminars on first aid to the Boy Scouts of the area. His success was inspiring a young person to help with confidence in an emergency. My success is and will be helping scaffold others to leave behind helplessness and become an authority of his or her future with self-knowledge and personal responsibility.
My partner and I knew the risks when we chose to homestead in a county of 3,000 people – one of many such communities in the West where there is no doctor. The challenges we face as a community is an opportunity for those who are creative. Our homestead is nearly complete, but the responsibilities of a homesteader are ongoing. In the mountains of Montana, most people are dependent on fruit and vegetables grown thousands of miles away. Sensitive to the needs of the community and of our family, providing locally-grown and sustainable food was our first contribution to becoming a resilient, conscientious, and healthy community. Our town may be under-served in healthcare but it is abundant with respect, love, and support. We cannot compete against the Big City for wages, but we offer intimacy, integration, and generational care. My path to filling the community's need for a physician began by observing my father as a youth leader and later in watching the toll that insufficient rural healthcare has taken on him and others. The greatest impact I can have for my future children's community is to be part of the solution to our need for solid, evidence-based healthcare to prevent illness before it begins, one step at a time.
2.) The future.
6:24PM 15 January 2027
It's a little late to schedule an appointment, I thought to myself as I heard the office phone ring. I turned the heat down on the gas range and walked toward the office across the hall from the kitchen. I grabbed the phone off the charger and looked at the caller ID as I answered. [K JENSEN - HOME]
"Hi, it's George. I know it's late but Kathy is hurtin' pretty bad. She didn't want me to bother you but I'm worried about her."
"It's alright, George. I'll grab my bag and head over in a few minutes."
I turned back to the kitchen where my partner was stirring the vegetables I left on the stove, our first child sat on the floor next to him.
"George called. He says Kathy's pretty bad off. I'm going to drive over and see what I can do for them."
"Drive safe. The plows don't hit their road until last," Brandon told me as I reached for the keys.
With my bag in the passenger seat, I drove our chained-up truck towards the Jensen's road farther up the mountain. My mind started to run but my thoughts were controlled. We identified her bowel cancer last month but she declined any treatment. I remember what she told me after listening to the options during our last home visit. Her voice was shaky but her words were firm. "I'm 71. It's a blessing I've lived as long as I have. I don't fear death. I fear pain. But I'm not leaving this mountain."
6:41PM
George already opened the gate so I pulled up to the old barn-style house.
"How's she doing, George?"
"Real weak. She hasn't eaten since Tuesday - can't keep nothin' down. I'm doing those stretches on her like you showed us. It's helpin' the cramps but she still can't rest."
6:47PM
The grey-haired woman was sitting up, facing the south window. Each home visit since opening the clinic last fall, I have never known her to exist anywhere else. The vibrant neighborhood-grandma that brought me fresh bread after moving to Philipsburg more than a decade ago was now a fixture on that old wool sofa - bound by the rusty chains of cancer - the consequence of years worth of neglected health in a doctorless town.
"Let's try something else, Kathy. I'm not leaving until you're comfortable."
Concern for her pain turned into concern for her spirit. As our conversation turned away from the disease and toward her children, it became apparent Kathy owned many regrets - lessons she desperately wanted to share. Treating the body also means treating the heart. Not all dis-ease is cured with a pill.
8:56PM
As George walked me back to the truck, I saw a different worry grow on his face. The man's aged skin could not hide the concern he held, the cause of many sleepless nights for the still-working farmer: bills.
"I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, but I don't know how we are goin' to keep payin' for these visits. We've got a little in savings but last year was a bad harvest and we're runnin' real thin."
"We already talked about this George. Don't worry. Let me know when the calves come in March and we'll settle-up, then."
"Thank you, Dr. Aal."
END.
--
While this story is just one example of how a clinic might look in our town, osteopathic medicine is founded on creativity and ingenuity. No one knows what the future will look like exactly, but the principles do not change. Just as these schools' mission are not to train physicians for patients, I do not care for patients. I care for people.
The characters within this story are based on real individuals who have touched my life. The content is what could have - and should have - occurred for these individuals. “Kathy” was my closest mentor, one of those people whose actions advanced the fundamentals of my life. After years of declining health, "Kathy", a widow, died alone in her mountain home in July of 2018. Unable to drive and with no physician in sight, she escaped the ceaseless and terminal agony of colon cancer by committing suicide. If a physician was available, "Kathy" might still be alive and comfortable, sharing her wisdom and guidance with me and other young people over coffee and her homemade bread.
I believe all physicians are genuine and care for their patients, but certain disciplines have preferred approaches to solving problems. Osteopathic medicine (DO) has a century of advocation, support, and encouragement for whole-person care. Although allopathic physicians (MD) share many goals, it is these tenets and approach of osteopathy that are especially supportive of my aspiration to deliver whole-person primary care and contribute to the future solutions of my community.
As a non-traditional student, I am excited to share my non-traditional experiences and the real-world free-market lessons learned from them. Life in a rural county building an off-grid homestead has allowed me the honor and humility to live close to my environment and surroundings, to feel immediate consequences for my actions. Beyond the easy driving distance (and outside practical budget constraints) of Home Depot, creativity is a skill honed through trial-and-error in the construction of a home built exclusively from materials found on the land. I survive and thrive in the struggle of remote life. I thrive in an environment where new challenges are presented with each new day. I will thrive with innovation to bring contemporary and future evidence-based medical treatments to an aging, remote community.
[email redacted]
PURPOSE:
This GoFundMe page has been established to assist with the financial burden of applying to medical college.
BACKGROUND (short):
My home, Granite county, is one of thirteen counties in Montana where there is no practicing physician. I am contributing to the solution for one of the societal challenges my future children will face. Medical care is non-existent in our county and severly limited in many others. I will be the prevention-focused, community physician our community needs.
BACKGROUND (long):
As life becomes more convenient, I feel a growing separation between the actions I choose and the consequences I feel. This distancing from tangible feedback obscures the learning process. Life in rural and remote areas bring with it a certain responsibility to myself and my dependents, and a respect and appreciation for the comforts of modernity.
After five years of quasi-vagabond adventuring and exploring the mountains in search of our chosen home, in 2015 my spouse and I purchased bare land in the Sapphire mountains of southwest Montana. In the following years, we built a home from materials found on the land, developed our creek for water supply, and continue to improve our homestead to supply resources for our own self-suffiency and the resilience of the community.
While saving money for our homestead and investigating a contemporary career in medicine and healing, I chose to be employed as an EMT and CNA in various hospitals as we did reconnaissance for compatible communities. As a well-adapted and flexible team member, I worked through the departments and journaled my experiences, asked questions, then observed some more. Shortly after deciding on our current and forever home, another decision was made. With the support of my spouse and family, I chose to attend university on a path to fill the vacuum of our town - the void of family-centered, whole-person healing and healthcare.
My experiences with rural and remote living are a daily reminder of how precious each life is. These feelings are not exclusive of a rural, minimalist lifestyle, but it is how I am best able to share life with my neighbors and connect with myself. I am an active participant in my life. It is my goal and aspiration to encourage my friends, neighbors, and future patients to be an active participant in theirs.
Finding such comfort in a wholesome life of minimalism was essential to me before continuing college education. There are no opportunities for a high-priced physician from the Big City in our town. With creativity and innovation, the possibilities for a physician who is flexible and compassionate are limitless.
Granite county is one of many such counties in the West where there is no physician. Our county operates a small community clinic where a nurse practitioner and a physician assistant share responsibility for the small window of available hours when they are not working outside the county.
CURRENT NEED:
I am fortunate to have FIVE interviews scheduled, FOUR are with my "first choice" schools. The total estimated cost to attend these FIVE interviews is (now more than) $2,144 (though I will not be changing the goal unless it is likely I attend all five interviews).
10 September 2018: Boise, Idaho
Fuel 950miles / 18mpg * $3 = $158
Hotel (Candlewood Inn) = $96
28 September 2018: Yakima, Washington
Fuel 950miles / 18mpg * $3 = $158
Hotel (Quality Inn) = $87
25 October 2018: Phoenix, Arizona
(There are only two direct flights to Phoenix from Missoula each week. I fly in Thursday morning, but the next return flight is Sunday: a total of three nights. The added $200 in hotel and rental car fees for two extra nights are less than the $400 difference in airfare to fly via Seattle and return Friday night.)
Fuel for friend to drop me at the airport, 150miles = $30
Airplane ticket (Allegiant) = $445
Rental car (Enterprise) = $152
Hotel (Quality Inn) = $313
28 October 2018: Spokane, Washington
Fuel 700miles / 18mpg * $3 = 117
Hotel (Comfort Inn) = $98
16 November 2018: Kirksville, Missouri
Fuel for friend to drop me at the airport, 150-miles = $30
Airplane ticket (United) = $527
Rental car (Enterprise) = $57
Hotel (Quality Inn) = $91
**If I accept an offer from a school before completing all interviews, I will cancel any remaining interviews and adjust the financial goal. Any monies beyond the goal will go towards the deposit for acceptance. The deposit varies by school but range from $1,500 to $2,500.
FUTURE NEEDS:
Should a medical college choose to offer me acceptance to their school, I will have 14-days to provide a deposit to hold my seat. This deposit is applied to my first year's tuition. This ranges from $1,500 to $2,500 depending on the school. I will update this section should I be offered acceptance.
Tuition ranges slightly but are around $53,000 per year for each of four years. Living expenses range between an estimated $1,200 per month to $4,000 per month, depending on location for a shared room or single apartment near campus and continuing my basic vegetarian diet. For the schools where I am scheduled to interview, the average cost-of-living for a student is $1,800 per month. This includes traveling 1-3 times per month across the Pacific Northwest for clinical rotations in years 2-4.
I estimate my cost of attendance to be approximately $298,000.
CONTINGENCY PLAN:
To pay for travel expenses for interviews, my fall-back plan is to pay using my credit card (27% interest).
To pay for the deposit, I will take a cash-advance on the same credit card.
Tuition will be funded through student loans, private or federally-subsidized. I will consider supplement loans for some living expenses.
If all costs are accrued through debt, I will consider working a Big City job with higher wage-potential. As early as can be achieved, I will pay-off my accrued debt and return home. I will investigate all options and opportunities to pay off a third-of-a-million dollars worth of student debt.
I will apply for the few scholarships available. Because physicians have a large earning potential, there are very few scholarships available for aspiring-physicians.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Below are two essays I have written as part of my medical college applications. I feel they are particularly illustrative of my goals and the source of motivation I use to overcome the challenges this enduring road presents.
1.) The past.
My father and I walked down the frost-heaved trail alongside the Big Quilcene river. I notice for the first time what he had become. The man who led my Boy Scout troop on 50-mile hikes every hot summer, the man who fed his family by hunting elk in the snow-covered mountains every winter, the man who inspired me to build an adventure of my life is nearing the end of his own.
As we approached the steep incline marking the end of the trail, I grew increasingly pessimistic about whether he could reach the crest. The man who taught his sons how to ford a swift river can now barely traverse a scenic walking path without assistance. The neuropathy in his legs caused by late-stage diabetes prevented him from feeling the roots that protrude from the earth. I caught him from falling twice when it was flat, I think to myself, how will he make it up an incline? My father remains positive. "One step at a time," he told me as he noticed my concern. One step at a time... He wanted to reach the overlook as much as I did, probably more so. He was not blind to his dim prognosis. As we neared the top of the rise, the salmonberry coated in hoarfrost transitioned to damp huckleberry thawing in the morning sun. How many more Father's day hikes would we share?
We left the dark chill of the forest behind and basked at the edge of the valley carved by thousands of years of flowing water. "I told you we could do it" he coughed, out of breath. We stood together cherishing every second as the sun rose over the Olympics. The silence was deafening. My heart grew heavy. That was the last time we shared this bonding experience.
For many years, my father failed to receive adequate care from his primary care physician because wait times pushed appointments farther and farther apart. The physician cared greatly about his patients, but contact time grew shorter and shorter as the generations age and their providers age, too. Rural physicians own many responsibilities. They also bring opportunity to help build lives of enjoyment, longevity, and adventure. If more physicians were available in my father's town, he might still be hiking with his sons today. I will be the prevention-focused physician my community needs and part of the solution my father didn't have.
Prior to his waning health, my father was employed as an EMT. He routinely held training and seminars on first aid to the Boy Scouts of the area. His success was inspiring a young person to help with confidence in an emergency. My success is and will be helping scaffold others to leave behind helplessness and become an authority of his or her future with self-knowledge and personal responsibility.
My partner and I knew the risks when we chose to homestead in a county of 3,000 people – one of many such communities in the West where there is no doctor. The challenges we face as a community is an opportunity for those who are creative. Our homestead is nearly complete, but the responsibilities of a homesteader are ongoing. In the mountains of Montana, most people are dependent on fruit and vegetables grown thousands of miles away. Sensitive to the needs of the community and of our family, providing locally-grown and sustainable food was our first contribution to becoming a resilient, conscientious, and healthy community. Our town may be under-served in healthcare but it is abundant with respect, love, and support. We cannot compete against the Big City for wages, but we offer intimacy, integration, and generational care. My path to filling the community's need for a physician began by observing my father as a youth leader and later in watching the toll that insufficient rural healthcare has taken on him and others. The greatest impact I can have for my future children's community is to be part of the solution to our need for solid, evidence-based healthcare to prevent illness before it begins, one step at a time.
2.) The future.
6:24PM 15 January 2027
It's a little late to schedule an appointment, I thought to myself as I heard the office phone ring. I turned the heat down on the gas range and walked toward the office across the hall from the kitchen. I grabbed the phone off the charger and looked at the caller ID as I answered. [K JENSEN - HOME]
"Hi, it's George. I know it's late but Kathy is hurtin' pretty bad. She didn't want me to bother you but I'm worried about her."
"It's alright, George. I'll grab my bag and head over in a few minutes."
I turned back to the kitchen where my partner was stirring the vegetables I left on the stove, our first child sat on the floor next to him.
"George called. He says Kathy's pretty bad off. I'm going to drive over and see what I can do for them."
"Drive safe. The plows don't hit their road until last," Brandon told me as I reached for the keys.
With my bag in the passenger seat, I drove our chained-up truck towards the Jensen's road farther up the mountain. My mind started to run but my thoughts were controlled. We identified her bowel cancer last month but she declined any treatment. I remember what she told me after listening to the options during our last home visit. Her voice was shaky but her words were firm. "I'm 71. It's a blessing I've lived as long as I have. I don't fear death. I fear pain. But I'm not leaving this mountain."
6:41PM
George already opened the gate so I pulled up to the old barn-style house.
"How's she doing, George?"
"Real weak. She hasn't eaten since Tuesday - can't keep nothin' down. I'm doing those stretches on her like you showed us. It's helpin' the cramps but she still can't rest."
6:47PM
The grey-haired woman was sitting up, facing the south window. Each home visit since opening the clinic last fall, I have never known her to exist anywhere else. The vibrant neighborhood-grandma that brought me fresh bread after moving to Philipsburg more than a decade ago was now a fixture on that old wool sofa - bound by the rusty chains of cancer - the consequence of years worth of neglected health in a doctorless town.
"Let's try something else, Kathy. I'm not leaving until you're comfortable."
Concern for her pain turned into concern for her spirit. As our conversation turned away from the disease and toward her children, it became apparent Kathy owned many regrets - lessons she desperately wanted to share. Treating the body also means treating the heart. Not all dis-ease is cured with a pill.
8:56PM
As George walked me back to the truck, I saw a different worry grow on his face. The man's aged skin could not hide the concern he held, the cause of many sleepless nights for the still-working farmer: bills.
"I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, but I don't know how we are goin' to keep payin' for these visits. We've got a little in savings but last year was a bad harvest and we're runnin' real thin."
"We already talked about this George. Don't worry. Let me know when the calves come in March and we'll settle-up, then."
"Thank you, Dr. Aal."
END.
--
While this story is just one example of how a clinic might look in our town, osteopathic medicine is founded on creativity and ingenuity. No one knows what the future will look like exactly, but the principles do not change. Just as these schools' mission are not to train physicians for patients, I do not care for patients. I care for people.
The characters within this story are based on real individuals who have touched my life. The content is what could have - and should have - occurred for these individuals. “Kathy” was my closest mentor, one of those people whose actions advanced the fundamentals of my life. After years of declining health, "Kathy", a widow, died alone in her mountain home in July of 2018. Unable to drive and with no physician in sight, she escaped the ceaseless and terminal agony of colon cancer by committing suicide. If a physician was available, "Kathy" might still be alive and comfortable, sharing her wisdom and guidance with me and other young people over coffee and her homemade bread.
I believe all physicians are genuine and care for their patients, but certain disciplines have preferred approaches to solving problems. Osteopathic medicine (DO) has a century of advocation, support, and encouragement for whole-person care. Although allopathic physicians (MD) share many goals, it is these tenets and approach of osteopathy that are especially supportive of my aspiration to deliver whole-person primary care and contribute to the future solutions of my community.
As a non-traditional student, I am excited to share my non-traditional experiences and the real-world free-market lessons learned from them. Life in a rural county building an off-grid homestead has allowed me the honor and humility to live close to my environment and surroundings, to feel immediate consequences for my actions. Beyond the easy driving distance (and outside practical budget constraints) of Home Depot, creativity is a skill honed through trial-and-error in the construction of a home built exclusively from materials found on the land. I survive and thrive in the struggle of remote life. I thrive in an environment where new challenges are presented with each new day. I will thrive with innovation to bring contemporary and future evidence-based medical treatments to an aging, remote community.
Organizer
Jeremy Aal
Organizer
Philipsburg, MT
