The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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CHICAGO Monday—The Association of American Medical Colleges, in cooperation with some of our leading industries, is sending a number of students to work abroad during this coming year. One firm in Philadelphia has given a grant of $180,000 to the medical group so that 90 students may be selected to spend vacation periods during the next three years studying medicine as it is practiced in mission hospitals and outpost facilities in underdeveloped areas of the world.

This year the first group of 29 medical students was named to receive the grants. They will study in Africa, Asia and South America. Two of the students whose wives are registered nurses were given grants large enough to permit them to take their wives with them.

These traveling students will assist practicing physicians and, under their guidance, will help to establish preventive medical programs. This will give the students an opportunity to observe alien medical procedures and techniques and to come in contact perhaps with men who have gone to these areas and dedicated their lives to help the people who would otherwise be left without any modern medical care.

This close association in itself will be a great experience. And I'm sure it can be of great value in increasing the knowledge among our own people of conditions in other areas of the world.

There is an increasing feeling among people that we should make it possible for those who show the ability to continue their education as far as they show the capacity to develop.

I have just heard the interesting story of a man who was deprived of the opportunity to go to college because of lack of funds and who now, as a successful businessman, has established what he calls "Education Funds, Inc." Through this organization he offers installment funds to parents who need extra cash to send their youngsters to school. This is much the same idea as buying a car on the installment plan, except that the student plan can be arranged for a much longer term and the interest is far lower than most other installment buying.

This gentleman also has worked out a unique way of protecting those engaged in this plan by a life insurance feature which is built into the plan.

I think these are commendable actions by our business leaders, but I do wish we would face the fact they are all merely stop-gaps. We must reach the realization that we need a universal government plan that would see to it that we do not waste any human intelligence and give higher education just as we now give high-school education.

In New York City and in Hyde Park, as well as other areas, we had torrential rains on Saturday. I had a number of guests for lunch at Hyde Park and they were nearly an hour late because of difficulties along the highways. By 5 o'clock, however, when some of my guests left the rain had almost stopped, and the time had slipped away very pleasantly as far as I was concerned.

On Friday I had greeted two very large school groups that came up to the library and on Sunday afternoon two families that were visiting the library came over to see me afterward at the cottage.

On the whole, the weekend proved to be a pleasant one despite the very bad weather on Saturday. The rain was much needed, though I think if it had come down a little more gently it would have accomplished more for the farmers.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1960, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 2, 1960

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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