Benschoter Fund will support allied health students

The College of Allied Health Professions boasts several named scholars, thanks to a generous matching scholarship program set up by the Charles R. O’Malley Trust. These students proudly carry the names of the respective donors who generously donated their scholarships. The CAHP has O’Malley, Thayer, Phillips, and Kolodziej Scholars.

Now, it will add one more name to the list of distinguished scholars: the Benschoter Scholars.

The honor is named for Reba Benschoter, PhD, emeritus professor, who led the then-School of Allied Health Professions for 10 years, from 1985-1995

Dr. Benschoter wanted to find a way to give back to allied health and to provide a pathway to education for students from smaller communities. She, with the college and the Charles R. O’Malley Charitable Lead Trust, established the Dean Reba A. Benschoter Scholarship Fund.

It is available for students with demonstrated financial need pursuing degrees in one of the allied health profession programs who come from Nebraska or Iowa towns of 10,000 or less.

“I come from a small town in Iowa that had 760 people,” Dr. Benschoter said. “I think that small-town kids sometimes have more difficulty finding financial support to do the things that they would probably do very well.”

“The establishment of this fund is typical of the leadership Dr. Benschoter has provided over many years,” said Kyle Meyer, PhD, dean of the college. “In the early years of the then school, she was instrumental in laying the foundation for what would become the College of Allied Health Professions and to this day she remains committed to ensuring the success of our students.”

“We hope that Dr. Benschoter’s generosity and initiative, and the unique opportunity provided by the Charles R. O’Malley Charitable Lead Trust, will inspire others to dare to dream as well,” said Brian Anderson, senior director of development at the University of Nebraska Foundation.

The O’Malley Trust, which has taken a transformational role in the establishment of named professorships and scholarship funds for the CAHP, matched Dr. Benschoter’s initial contribution dollar-for-dollar. Of the $1 million dollars of matching funds pledged by the trust, $75,000 are left to be matched dollar-for-dollar for other benefactors to endow their own “named” scholarships.

Dr. Benschoter worked at UNMC for more than 40 years. As associate dean of allied health, she was a pioneer in the development of telemedicine, which laid the groundwork for the development of online distance education, something the college is a national leader in today.