Helping UC medical students in times of need

Ben Stamler, MD, Med ’26, will be forever grateful to his parents, Rick Stamler, MD, Med ’85 and Betsy Rabkin, MD, Med ’85, for financially supporting him through medical school. Their generosity, he says, allowed him to graduate from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine debt-free, and removed the burden that the vast majority of his peers would have to carry forward for years to come.

To that end, paying his parents’ generosity forward was important to Stamler. So, in his final year, when they told him they wished to make a donation to the College of Medicine, also their alma mater, Stamler was excited and grateful, and he came up with the idea of creating an emergency fund for students in financial need. “Medical education is costly as it is, let alone the ancillary expenses, including study materials, board exams and supplies,” Stamler says. “Rather than endowing a specific scholarship that might help only a few students, I felt there could be a greater impact from creating a fund that could support many students throughout their education, particularly when they may need it most.”

The idea struck a chord with his parents.

Getting through medical school was tough for both Drs. Stamler and Rabkin. In their first year of study, her father died and his father was laid off. Both of them had to take out loans to complete their degrees — and even if tuition costs in the 1980s were significantly lower than they are today, those loans nevertheless carried a high rate of interest. “We got married after medical school — we had no savings, all we had was debt,” says Dr. Rabkin. “We did not want our son to have the same burden. We decided that we were going to get him through, no matter what, and we were moved by the stories we heard from Ben about his fellow students. Some of them couldn’t afford to pay for their exams. Some didn’t have rent money or food money until they got their loans. But the one that struck me the most was one fellow classmate who couldn’t afford to travel home for the holidays.”

Dr. Rabkin, an internist and College of Medicine professor emeritus, and Dr. Stamler, a retired obstetrician-gynecologist, practiced medicine in Cincinnati for over 30 years. They understand the challenges medical students and residents face. “The average student is coming into medical school later in life, they’re leaving with bigger debt burdens, the training programs are longer, and the average resident’s salary is less than a nurse’s,” Dr. Stamler says. Another issue he points to is that many graduates gravitate toward more lucrative fields of medicine — areas they may not even be interested in — simply because they want to pay off their debt as fast as possible. This, Dr. Stamler says, creates a vacuum in areas like internal and family medicine, where doctors are in demand.

The couple hope their gift can take some of the weight off the shoulders of medical students from the start and set them on a smoother course through college and beyond. A generous $100,000 gift has created the Dean’s Emergency Endowment Fund, providing emergency support to students for unforeseen expenses. This may include housing, food, utilities, travel, health care, testing and certification fees — impeding their academic success and personal lives so they can get immediate relief and support needed to remain enrolled in college and successfully complete their medical education.

“Since we struggled, we didn’t want Ben to have that burden, but we also want to lessen it for future students,” the couple says.

This is the second gift Rabkin and Stamler have made to the College of Medicine. In 2023, the couple donated funds anonymously to the IvaDean Medical Student Scholarship Fund, which honors IvaDean Lair, retired registrar of the College of Medicine, and her profound impact on generations of students. Giving to their alma mater — and supporting medical students — is important to this Cincinnati family.

“Beyond entering the same profession [as my parents] and following, in part, in their footsteps, our shared alma mater adds another dimension to our experiences,” says Ben Stamler, MD, currently a resident in internal medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. “It was always fun hearing about their time at the college and comparing it with my own, especially seeing how it has changed over the years. While I'm continuing my training on the East Coast, I will always feel connected to the College of Medicine as an alumnus and Cincinnati native.”

Featured image at top: Rick Stamler, MD, Med ’85; Betsy Rabkin, MD, Med ’85; Ben Stamler, MD, Med ’26. Photo/Provided.