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December 8, 2011

ULM grad awarded LA Health Professional Development Scholarship

Mary Webster, University of Louisiana at Monroe graduate (B.S. '11) is one of Louisiana State University's 65 first-year dental students.

She is also the first-ever LSU dental student to be awarded the Louisiana Health Professional Development Scholarship.

Webster has a history of giving to others. As a teenager, she served on a mission in the Dominican Republic, reading to children in an orphanage.

The mission team included dentists, and she saw first-hand how the lives of children were transformed through dentistry.

The scholarship is designed to address the severe shortage of primary care providers in what are called Health Professional Shortage Areas.

According to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, 54 of Louisiana's 64 parishes are in this category.

Webster will receive $49,901. Essentially, this is a tuition waiver. Upon graduation, she will serve for five years in one of the 54 underserved parishes.

She can choose to serve in a public health clinic, or she can choose a private practice that accepts patients with Medicare, Medicaid and also the uninsured.

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