In a moment of downtime during a volunteer medical trip in Ukraine in early 2022, three men got to know one another.

All veterans of the military, one told the others how he wanted to apply to medical school but was finding it difficult to translate his military experience into the world of academia.

That story got the other two thinking. Gregory Beilman, MD, a retired Army colonel and professor in the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Department of Surgery, and Chris vanBrenk, an Army Special Forces commander and current paramedic, wondered why—when military medics had extremely relevant experience and when a physician shortage looms nationwide—there weren’t more programs designed to help veterans interested in medicine pursue medical school.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some kind of pathway program that aids in recruiting what would arguably be a really large untapped population of talent [in veterans]?” vanBrenk remembers wondering.

So the duo, calling on their skills of innovation and leadership from their combined decades of military experience, jumped into action with a new mission.

Medics to medicine

Together, Beilman and vanBrenk teamed up with colleagues at the U of M Medical School to create the new Military Medic to Medical School program, a concerted effort to translate veteran combat medics’ unique skill sets into careers as doctors.

Starting this year, between two and five students will join the program annually. Each cohort will receive financial support and individualized academic advising—including guidance for completing prerequisite courses and MCAT test preparation—as they work toward medical school admission. So long as students meet coursework and testing requirements, they are guaranteed admission to the U’s Medical School.

Before this program began, veteran medics looking to pursue a career in medicine had to navigate the in-between phase of fulfilling medical school requirements and applications on their own, says Beilman, who is also an M Health Fairview critical care surgeon. It’s a precarious moment for aspiring physicians, especially those who are taking an untraditional route to medical school, he says.

“This gives military medics an off ramp of training to use their skills that they’ve accumulated in their military experience and use it for good in the civilian community,” Beilman says. “It gives these very special people the opportunity to continue to give back to their communities in a different way.”

Reporting for duty

There are 16 million veterans in the United States, nearly 6% of the U.S. population, yet less than 1% of physicians have had any military experience. The Military Medic to Medical School program aims to change that.

“A lot of veterans undersell their own capability,” vanBrenk says. “These medics with combat experience were doing medicine in some of the most austere conditions on the planet. And I think that level of grit, determination, resilience, adaptability, and teamwork really is kind of unmatched in a lot of their normal civilian counterparts.”

Sarah Loudon is one of three students currently enrolled in the Military Medic to Medical School program. Loudon has always had a passion for medicine and a reverence for veterans, including her father and both of her grandfathers. At 27, she enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, working in aeromedical evacuations.

“It’s a very unique environment in which to take care of patients, where sometimes you don’t have the exact tools you wish you had,” Loudon says. “But it allows you to think outside the box and be very flexible in your ability to solve problems.”

While Loudon’s family ties motivated her to enlist, Taylor Ritchot, also in the program’s first cohort, found her path to the military after witnessing a drowning in seventh grade.

“It motivated me to put myself in the position where I could help people in emergencies,” Ritchot recalls. “I felt really guilty, because I watched this drowning happen, and I couldn’t jump in and do anything.”

So when she was 17, she enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard, serving a six-year contract. During her service, she was stationed in Kuwait, where she treated evacuees coming from Afghanistan during the pullout of U.S. forces in 2021.

“That’s when I really found out that I liked being the person who made the course of action, instead of being the person who just applied it,” she says. “That’s when I found my confidence and said, ‘I do know what I’m doing, and I probably could be a physician on the civilian side.’”

And for Isaac Schneider, the third member of the cohort, his enlistment in the Montana National Guard in 2006 was meant to be a short-term stop to help pay for school, but he found himself serving for nearly 20 years. In 2016 he finished qualifications for Active Duty Special Forces and shortly after deployed to northwest Africa on a medical mission.

“We had a couple casualties with our partner force, and it was during that point in time where I made my decision that I wanted to be a physician,” Schneider says.

Part of a legacy

The Military Medic to Medical School program is funded in part by the family of William Lewis Anderson, who served as a military medic during World War II. Anderson, while trying to save a wounded soldier on the battlefield, was killed in action at age 23 but had plans to become a doctor after his service. Decades later, his younger brother, Roger Anderson, who attended the U of M Medical School and then joined the U.S. Navy as a physician, made a gift in his honor.

Today, Anderson’s dream is making medical school a reality for a new generation of medics. Funding from the Anderson family’s gift will help support aspiring doctors like Loudon, Ritchot, and Schneider as they prepare for medical school, and it also supports vanBrenk’s role as director of education and training for the program.

Loudon and Schneider aim to start medical school this coming fall, and Ritchot plans to begin in fall 2026. Each of them say it’s an honor to be among the first students to participate in the program and that the recognition of their unique experience is meaningful.

“We felt like our service was kind of overlooked and underappreciated,” Ritchot says. “This program really gives us the opportunity to shine, and we get to hopefully make this journey more accessible to people who come after us.”

Schneider agrees and says the program is a fitting next chapter in a life of service.

“One of the big things throughout my career is community: You get into the community, you’re supported by the community, and then you support the community,” Schneider says. “That’s a big thing for me: How do we continue this program? I’m going to be [in on] the first step of this, and I’m going to do the best I can to create a solid foundation.”

Make a gift to support the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Military Medic to Medical School program at z.umn.edu/MedictoMD.