Tri-Cities residents open doors to WSU medical students

Tri-City residents opened their doors to the first round of WSU medical students in response to a Herald story about the need for more help.

Officials at the university’s new Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine said last week they were still needing housing for 10 of the 15 medical students scheduled to visit the Richland campus during six one-week stints in late 2017, 2018 and 2019.

The inaugural class starts classes in less than three months. When they are accepted into the program, they will be linked to one of four campuses – Tri-Cities, Everett, Spokane and Vancouver.

After two years of training, they will be divided across the campuses to work in area hospitals.

When the university reached out to the community with concerns that they might not have enough homes for all of the students, people responded, said Christina VerHeul, the college’s director of communications and marketing.

Within a day of the Herald story, the university received 12 applications, and filled the remaining spots.

“The Tri-Cities community really stepped up and we’re thrilled to have all those applications come in,” she said. “We’re so pleased to have the community involved and for them to be part of our students’ journey.”