With the current acute shortage of primary care doctors, finding a local doctor to take care of you and your family can be a daunting and frustrating task – especially if you have no health insurance. The Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) is helping to meet that critical need by awarding scholarships to future doctors who are committed to returning to their local community to take care of uninsured patients.

Since 2007, PAMF's affiliate the Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center in Santa Cruz and the Central California Alliance for Health, have awarded a two-year, $5,000 scholarship ($10,000 total) to a deserving health sciences graduate from the University of California, Santa Cruz, to help pay for the student’s medical school fees.

This year’s scholarship winner, Max Caccese, is fluent in Spanish and has gained hands-on medical experience working as an intern at one of Santa Cruz’s local community clinics, Salud Para La Gente, as well as at a medical clinic in Lima, Peru and as a volunteer with Santa Cruz County’s Mental Health Recovery Team.

“Primary care physicians will be the basis on which we will build the new American health care system,” says Larry deGhetaldi, M.D., president of PAMF Santa Cruz. “Max epitomizes the kind of physician who will improve outcomes, quality and service to patients while we make health care more available and more affordable to all Americans.”

As part of our commitment to supporting future generations of doctors, PAMF’s physicians also awarded scholarships to three local high school students who plan on pursuing a pre-med undergraduate degree:

• Matthew Colbran-Patterson from Los Gatos High School, who will attend the University of California, Davis


• Omar Melgoza-Cortes from Watsonville High School, who will attend the University of California, San Diego


• Manisha Samy from Sequoia High School in Redwood City, who will attend Stanford University

The Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group (PAFMG) Pre-Medical Scholarship, established in 1993 and funded by PAMF doctors, provides $5,000 a year (a total of $20,000 per recipient) to deserving students who attend a four-year college and plan to pursue careers as doctors. Unlike most other scholarships, which are one-time awards, the PAFMG Pre-Medical Scholarship repeats for all four years of college, helping students fulfill their ambition to become a doctor and give back to their communities.

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