OU-HCOM Welcomes New Class, Presents Awards

The Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-HCOM) inducted its largest incoming class ever, August 13, with 140 freshmen receiving their white coats during the college’s annual convocation. The white coats are provided to the incoming class each year by the Ohio Osteopathic Foundation.  

In addition, the college awarded its highest honor, the Phillips Medal of Public Service to Robert S. Juhasz, DO, medical director at the Cleveland Clinic’s Willoughby Hills Family Health Center and a member of the American Osteopathic Association's Board of Trustees, and to Lois M. Nora, MD, JD, MBA., interim president and dean of The Commonwealth Medical College, who also served as the keynote speaker.

Selected from 3,821 applicants, the students in the Class of 2015 began orientation and anatomy classes last month at OU-HCOM. Of the 140 new students, 86 percent hail from Ohio and 14 percent from Ohio Appalachian counties. Twenty-six percent of the students are first generation college students, 22 percent are minorities and 45 percent are women. The class also set new records as having the highest average MCAT scores and the highest combined non-science grade point average (3.74) in the history of the college.

In early 2008, the American Osteopathic Association's Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA) granted the college approval for an increase from 100 students per class to 140. Beginning that academic year, OU-HCOM began the increase by admitting 120 students, which continued during 2009-2010 and last year.

Two years ago, the college renovated and enlarged its anatomy laboratory, while last year OU-HCOM completed renovations and opened a larger state-of-the-art Heritage Clinical Assessment and Training Center, made possible by a $2.3 million gift from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations.  The latter provides a training area for first and second year students to enhance their skills in a safe and supportive environment. Both facilities are located in Grosvenor Hall.

Pending COCA approval, OU-HCOM plans to increase its enrollment again to produce more primary care physicians, especially for Ohio. As part of the historic $105 million gift to the college from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations, OU-HCOM plans to open an extension campus in central Ohio by 2015 that can accommodate an additional 50 students per class.

 

 

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