Student experiences at KansasCOM show how deeply scholarship support can influence a future physician’s journey. Those stories set the stage for the new Carl M. and Ruth L. Coonrod Endowed Scholarship Fund, a long-term source of financial assistance designed to strengthen Kansas’ health care workforce.
When second-year medical student Laura Bishop-Gillen first arrived in Wichita with her husband and young son, she carried the full weight of uprooting her family from Colorado to pursue a long‑held dream: becoming a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine.
The reality of leaving a decade-long career in a pathology lab to attend the Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine was exciting, but becoming a full‑time student again, especially while raising a child, came with uncertainty. When she learned she had received the Riverside Health Foundation Scholarship, emotion overwhelmed her.
“Receiving the scholarship meant the school not only wanted me to be here, but they were also investing in me,” she says. “It made me feel valued in a way I really needed at that moment.”
Bishop‑Gillen’s experience highlights the importance of steady financial support for those working through the demands of medical school. Her experience mirrors that of many aspiring physicians and points to a larger truth that financial support goes beyond short-term impact. It changes a student’s trajectory.
Impacting Lives With an Endowed Scholarship
That kind of lasting change is at the heart of the Carl M. and Ruth L. Coonrod Endowed Scholarship Fund, Kansas Health Science University’s first endowed scholarship. The fund ensures that scholarship awards will continue supporting KansasCOM students for generations.
What makes an endowed scholarship especially powerful is its permanence. The original gift is invested, and only a portion of the annual earnings is used for scholarships, allowing the principal to remain intact and continue growing and generating support year after year.
“This endowment is a powerful statement of belief in our students and investment in the future of Kansas health care,” says Molly Fox, vice president of Institutional Advancement. “We are deeply grateful for the Coonrod family’s vision to ensure support of students into perpetuity.”
The Costs of Medical Education Beyond Tuition
Tuition is the most visible medical school expense, but it is not the only one. Student doctors also shoulder costs for relocation, licensing exams, required study materials, clinical rotation housing and travel, and for everyday essentials such as rent and health insurance.
Another student who has experienced the difference scholarship support can make is second‑year student doctor Kaitlyn Quigley. Living with Type 1 diabetes, she recalls how overwhelming the pressures felt during her first year as she prepared to move to Wichita from North Carolina. She had aged out of her parents’ insurance and would lose her employer coverage at the same time.
“The Riverside scholarship really lifted the weight off my shoulders and took away some of those financial fears,” Quigley says. “And this is one of those things that I think really will help give me a lot of perspective as a physician in the future. When you have a chronic illness, you’re always thinking steps ahead—insurance, medications. The scholarship made that manageable for me.”
Freed from some financial worry, she says she was able to pursue opportunities during her first year she once thought out of reach, including participating in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Diabetic Summer Training Program with Vanderbilt University and supporting diabetes and kidney research.
A Family Legacy Built on Opportunity
Endowed scholarships offer foundations a way to create steady, long‑term support that mirrors their values.
Randy Coonrod—chairman of the board of Coonrod & Associates, KHSU trustee, chairman of the Riverside Health Foundation, and trustee of the Coonrod Family Foundation—has played a part in awarding Riverside scholarships and in establishing this new endowed scholarship fund. He chose to do so through his family’s foundation to continue his parents’ mission to expand educational opportunities.
Randy’s parents, Carl and Ruth Coonrod, longtime champions of education and opportunity.
He said, for his parents, and especially for his father, Carl, educational support was transformative. When Carl returned from World War II, he pursued a degree at Kansas State University through the GI Bill, which he always credited with reshaping his future. His company, Coonrod & Walz Construction Co., evolved into a respected Kansas firm known for projects on educational facilities across the state’s college campuses. Ruth, a lifelong teacher, saw potential in every student who entered her classroom.
Randy’s parents, Carl and Ruth Coonrod, longtime champions of education and opportunity.
“The Coonrod Family Foundation was established to honor my parents’ commitment to education and to perpetuate their values for future generations,” Coonrod says. “They would be incredibly proud to see their legacy honored through these scholarships by an organization that shares their compassion for Kansas and community.”
The Coonrod Endowed Scholarship Fund aligns directly with KansasCOM’s mission to add to the state’s physician workforce. The fund supports medical students who come from Kansas or have deep ties to the state, demonstrate resilience in overcoming adversity, and show a meaningful commitment to hard work and community‑focused practice.
The Coonrod endowment ensures that more student doctors have the support they need to succeed, and Kansas communities will benefit in return. It will allow more of tomorrow’s physicians, like student doctors Quigley and Bishop-Gillen, to begin their osteopathic medical careers not only well prepared but supported from the very beginning.