Vermont AHEC Scholars
The AHEC Scholars Program is a voluntary, nationally recognized program for health professions students/residents. It provides opportunities for trainees to increase knowledge, strengthen leadership skills, and gain competencies within eight broad topic areas.
The VT AHEC Scholars Program works with medical students interested in any specialty. AHEC has an expressed interest in the primary care workforce, and we believe that all medical specialties can benefit from the AHEC Scholars Program experience and curriculum.
AHEC Scholars Core Topic Areas
- Interprofessional Education/Interprofessional Practice: team-based care delivery, patient-centered care, effective teamwork
- Behavioral Health Integration: services that better address the needs of individuals with mental health and substance use conditions, including training for health professionals to address burnout and resiliency
- Connecting Communities and Supporting Health Professionals/Community Health Workers (CHWs): increase training and development of paraprofessionals who serve as connectors between health professionals and the community
- Virtual Learning and Telehealth: leverage technology to improve curricula and community-based experiential training
- Social Determinants of Health: economic stability, education, social and community context, health and health care, neighborhood and built environment
- Cultural Competency: recognize and address the unique culture, language and health literacy of diverse consumers and communities, diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Medical Practice Transformation: quality improvement, care coordination, cost containment, rural healthcare, primary care, care for underserved/disadvantaged populations, patient-centered care, team-based care
- Current and Emerging Health Issues: opioids and substance use disorders, oral health as part of overall health, oral health integration, COVID-19
Benefits of Participation
- Designation as a Vermont AHEC Scholar, a nationally recognized distinction:
- List on C.V. section “Honors and Awards”
- At Commencement, pins, and gold and white cords are worn by students who earned the AHEC Scholar distinction
- An achievement to discuss in residency program and job interviews to differentiate from other applicants
- Enhance educational experience by engaging with those who live in rural and underserved communities
- Gain a deeper understanding of communities through opportunities to hear from and interact with providers, policy makers, community leaders, and others who care for those in rural and underserved populations
- Gain experience and competencies in interprofessional care and care for the underserved
- Eight core topic areas provide prompts for reflection: what did you learn and how did you grow, as a person and health professional?
Requirements
Program duration must cover at least two years, with each year including 40-hours of eligible didactic education and 40-hours of eligible experiential or clinical training, for a total of 160-hours of eligible activities. VT AHEC offers a “flexible pathways” approach to meet the AHEC Scholars requirements. Only those students completing all requirements will be designated as “Vermont AHEC Scholars” at time of graduation. See LCOM class specific requirements below.
Not already enrolled in the AHEC Scholars program?
If you are a current Larner College of Medicine student and wish to enroll in the AHEC Scholars program, please complete this form and return it to AHEC at ahec@uvm.edu using the secure UVM File Transfer Service https://filetransfer.uvm.edu.
Note: AHEC Scholars enrollees are part of AHEC’s workforce development research. Stipends *may* be available to participants for certain AHEC activities. If a stipend is offered, it is a taxable transaction for income tax purposes and a 1099 Form will be issued for tax purposes.
