Helping Stars Shine
Reader Scholarship assists promising medical students
By Stacey Bomser
Photography by Sonya Revell
Through scholarship support, Dr. Ethan Adre is training to become an ophthalmologist.
E
than Adre, M.D. ’22, says he owes his future in part to a woman he never met. Dr. Adre, who graduated from the Miller School in May and is beginning his residency in ophthalmology, acknowledges his path would have been vastly different had he not received the Mrs. Betty Siegel Reader Scholarship, which offers full-tuition scholarships for deserving, qualified medical students at the Miller School.
“I vividly remember opening the congratulatory email. It was a life-changing moment,” said Dr. Adre. “Knowing that my tuition was covered, and I would not need to worry about student debt gave me peace of mind and the freedom to explore my options and pursue my passion.”
Passion is one of the attributes exhibited by all of the Betty Reader Scholars, a cadre of high-achieving students selected for their drive to succeed and desire to make a difference in the world.
“Betty valued education, and I think she would be very proud knowing her gift was helping such deserving students,” said Candice Gidney, who serves as a co-director and co-trustee of the Mrs. Betty Siegel Reader Scholarship Fund, along with her parents, Jerilynn and Marc Gidney, and co-trustee and husband Jonathan Macy.
The Gidneys were longtime family friends of Reader, who was a philanthropist, volunteer and enthusiastic supporter of education. Forever grateful for his scholarship, Dr. Adre intends to pay it forward by delving into research in ophthalmology.
Jerilynn Gidney says watching scholarship recipients excel is priceless. “You get back more than you give. It is that plain and simple,” she said. She believes the Betty Reader Scholars are all shining stars who will go on to achieve remarkable things. “They are the stars. We are just the axis to get them to rotate.
Inspiring and Empowering the Next Generation
New support will help bring the best and brightest medical students to Miami for innovative training.
M
edical education is more than simply studying human physiology, learning about the nature of disease and attaining the skills required to do medical procedures safely and effectively. It’s also about treating and communicating with patients and their families with clarity and compassion.
It’s about learning to collaborate with different members of a multidisciplinary medical team. And it’s about holistically understanding community health trends and responding to rapid changes in the broader health care landscape.
At UHealth and the Miller School, we place the utmost importance on our responsibility to train future generations of physicians and provide expert instruction in all areas of clinical education. This is reflected in our comprehensive NextGenMD curriculum, which surpasses the traditional medical school experience and prepares students for a successful career in a highly dynamic, ever-evolving field.
Our faculty prepare graduates to face leading-edge issues impacting medicine today and tomorrow, from understanding the effects of climate change on the population and community health to evaluating a particular patient’s social determinants of health to demonstrating a fluent under-standing of the business of medicine.
“This is a moment to elevate our work,” said Henri R. Ford, M.D., M.H.A., dean and chief academic officer of the Miller School, “to support and train the next generation of physicians, accelerate the future of personalized medicine, uncover cures for devastating diseases and ensure health equity for all our communities.” 
