Subprogram Code 102: Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students in the Allied Health Professions

The University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences and their graduate educational programs in Physician Assistant Studies, Physical Therapy and Speech-Language Pathology are committed to providing financial assistance to qualified students from disadvantaged backgrounds and to promote diversity among health professions students in all programs. The majority of our pool of candidates for allied health professional degree programs comes from the eastern half of the state, which is located entirely in the central portion of the Appalachia region. Although the extent of medically underserved areas in Kentucky spans the entire state, the geographic areas with the greatest needs in primary care are also located in eastern Appalachian Kentucky. Notably, the Appalachian Regional Council has identified eastern Kentucky as a region with the greatest potential for employment opportunity growth in health care, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor projects that the fastest growing employment opportunities from 2002-2018 for eastern Kentucky lie in non-physician health care professions, including physician assistants, physical therapists, and speech-language pathologists due primarily to an aging population and a longer living population.