FIU medical student receives full scholarship

MIAMI – The Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation has donated $25,000 to the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine to provide one full scholarship for one medical student.

Kailee Imperatore, one of the 43 students that make up the inaugural class, has been chosen to receive the award.

Imperatore, 23, is a Sarasota native who graduated from the University of Florida, where she discovered her passion for biological and cultural anthropology and the forensic sciences.

“This generous donation will help make Kailee’s dream of being a doctor a reality,” said Dr. John Rock, dean of the Wertheim College of Medicine. “We are grateful to the Foundation and for their faith in our students and in FIU.”

“The Foundation is thrilled to be a partner in this new and exciting medical school and its first incoming class,” said Kim Greene, executive director of the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation.

The Wertheim College of Medicine opened its doors on Aug. 3 to a diverse inaugural class chosen from a pool of 3,332 applicants. Profiles and pictures of the students are available at the “43 Dreams That Will Touch Thousands” website.

Media Contact: Jean-Paul Renaud, 305-348-2716

-FIU-

About the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation
The Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation, Inc. is a private grant-making foundation, supporting projects and programs designed to improve, preserve or restore the health and health care of the people in Miami-Dade County.  For more information or a grant application, please contact Ms. Kim Greene, Executive Director, 1550 Madruga Avenue, Suite 215, Coral Gables, FL 33146, (305) 667-6017, website: www.jtmacdonaldfdn.org.

About the FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine:
The College of Medicine was approved in 2006 by the Florida Board of Governors and the Florida Legislature.  In 2008, it received preliminary accreditation by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education of the AAMC and admitted its first class in August 2009. Among the innovative elements of the FIU College of Medicine is a program called NeighborhoodHELP™, which will send medical students along with their counterparts in social work, nursing and public health, into the community. The FIU College of Medicine is expected to have a multi-billion-dollar economic impact on Miami-Dade County, bringing thousands of jobs to the area and eventually contributing millions to the state coffers every year. For more information visit http://medicine.fiu.edu/

About FIU:
Florida International University was founded in 1965 and is Miami’s only public research university. With a student body of more than 38,000, its 17 colleges and schools offer more than 200 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations and law. More than 100,000 FIU alumni live and work in South Florida. FIU has been classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a “High Research Activity University”. In August 2009, FIU welcomed the inaugural class of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu.