This week is the 41st annual Children’s Miracle Network Telethon.
You can donate here.
The money raised doesn’t only help sick and injured children at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital. It also helps provide medical scholarships to aspiring doctors.
One of those recipients is Cain Dudek, who is what you would call a non-traditional medical school student at Penn State College of Medicine. He’s 31 years old with a young family and a previous career.
“I worked as an ICU nurse prior to going to medical school. In that career, I found myself a little bit more drawn to the medicine aspect of things,” he said.
He applied to medical school after getting advice from a mentor who told him he would rather try and fail at age 40 than not having tried at age 60.
“Medical school had its own challenges,” Dudek said.
Despite the challenges, he found medical school to be a good experience.
“It was quite enjoyable. I had a good time learning what I wanted to learn and exploring different specialties and having the opportunity to have that positive impact on patients,” he said.
He’s a big advocate of Children’s Miracle Network, and the nonprofit stepped in to support him with a $2,500 scholarship.
“It’s very expensive to be a medical student, so anything we can do from a CMN standpoint to offset the cost a little bit, to encourage them to want to be medical professionals or not make it so much of a financial burden for them,” CMN Director Katie Anderson said.
“It’s more than just the money. It really granted me the gift of time – time with my children, time with my family, time not worrying about the financial struggles,” Dudek said.
Dudek will be leaving Hershey and heading to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. He’ll spend five years in a residency program in anesthesiology and critical care.
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