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Rachel Sluder, a fourth year student in the 91ֱ����Ƶ College of Osteopathic Medicine, was one of 10 students selected from an international pool of 70 applicants to be awarded the James McKenney Student Travel Award by the Association for Gerontology/Geriatrics in Higher Education (AGHE).   

The funding for this award is the result of a planned giving gift by James McKenney, who was born in Maine and resided there for most of his life. McKenney highly valued education and established a planned giving gift for AGHE through Marilyn R. Gugliucci, Ph.D., director of geriatrics education and research at 91ֱ����ƵCOM and former AGHE president.

Twenty percent of McKenney’s estate was donated upon his death in 2015 to advance student education on aging. Starting in 2017, and each year until 2024, 10 students will be recognized with the James McKenney Student Travel Award so that they may participate in AGHE Annual Meeting. 

At the close of the meeting student awardees were required to write a brief statement about their AGHE Annual Meeting experience. Sluder wrote: “As a medical student about to graduate, this was such a valuable experience for me. This conference impressed upon me the significance of interprofessional work in the field of geriatrics. I could see that this is a given in the world of gerontology, and every presentation was infused with this philosophy. This was further highlighted in the presentations that focused on undergraduate education, as such courses are often geared toward students entering a variety of fields that involve important work with older adults, whether it be social work, nursing, academic gerontology or medicine. Very soon, I will become a physician, and attending this conference reminded me that providing the very best care for older adults involves trained, caring people from all fields.”

To learn more about the 91ֱ����Ƶ’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, visit

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