An anonymous donation expected to exceed $50 million (£40 million) is helping to cover tuition costs for medical laboratory science students at the University of Washington for the next half-century.
Dr Tim Dellit, dean of the university's School of Medicine, made the surprise announcement on Monday to about 30 grateful undergraduates, who will each see two quarters' worth of tuition covered for their senior-year clinical rotations, The Seattle Times reported.
'I'm really shocked,' said student Jasmine Wertz, eyes filling with tears. 'Overwhelmed. Extremely grateful.' Students in the programme are trained to perform clinical lab tests on patient samples, which are used to help diagnose, treat and prevent disease. Their clinical rotations are so time-consuming that it is hard to hold down part-time jobs during them.
The gift is the latest in a series of recent donations helping to pay for college around the United States. Last year, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York received a $1 billion donation from Ruth Gottesman, making tuition there free. Most medical students at Johns Hopkins University no longer pay tuition thanks to a $1 billion gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
The University of Washington announcement is worth about $8,000 to $10,000 per student, said UW Medicine spokesperson Susan Gregg. The programme will also expand from 70 to 100 students over the next 10 years. The donor, from Washington state, wishes to remain anonymous but 'had a relationship with this programme', Gregg said. The donor is also a fan of the local burger chain Dick's, and burgers were piled high as the students celebrated.
The field of medical laboratory services has faced increasing demand and an ageing workforce in Washington, resulting in an 'urgent need to grow the pipeline of highly skilled clinical laboratory professionals', the health care system said. 'You are the glue, in many ways, of our entire health system,' Dr Dellit told the students. 'You work behind the scenes that allow all of the health care machinery to work.'
