The proposed School of Osteopathic Medicine will bring Benedictine College’s tried-and-true model of faithful, Christ-centered education to America’s medical education system—creating an enclave of truth in a wayward world to provide medical care according to the model of our namesake.
An Authentically Catholic Medical School
It is crucial—for the health of our nation and for our duty to care well for the sick—that our doctors are not technocrats, but well-formed and well-educated men and women mindful of the dignity of the individual. These doctors must learn to see and care for the whole person.
The Proposed Benedictine College School of Osteopathic Medicine will form doctors around four core values:
Infinite Dignity of the Human Person
Authentic Catholic Bioethics
Services to God by Serving Others
Formation of the Student
Mission
The mission of the Benedictine College School of Osteopathic Medicine is to educate medical students within a community of faith and scholarship to become skilled physicians dedicated to the physical, spiritual, and mental well-being of all individuals, in fidelity to the healing and teaching ministry of Jesus Christ through the magisterial teachings of the Catholic Church.
Vision
The Benedictine College School of Osteopathic Medicine seeks to Transform Culture in America by placing the essential dignity of the human person at the center of medical education.
Milestones in Our Journey to Launch the Medical School:
Medical School News & Media:
An Urgent Need
Too many of our country’s medical schools have devolved into simple training grounds: adept at imparting a mechanical understanding of medical norms, procedures, and skill sets, but neglecting the importance of forming the physician into a compassionate, prudent person, formed in the truth of the dignity inherent to every human.
To add to this gap in medical education, over 100 million people do not have adequate access to healthcare professionals, with almost a quarter of the medically disenfranchised population being children. The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) estimates that there is currently a shortage of over 13,500 practitioners, and projections reveal more bad news. By 2037 there will be a shortage of 187,000 physicians.
The result is a healthcare system that is transactional rather than focused on truly holistic healing. A system that dehumanizes and routinizes a medical process rather than a healing process that should be personal and prudential. In short, today’s medical professionals are taught to look at algorithms and order procedures; they aren’t taught to care for people. And as a consequence, we’re experiencing a crisis of good doctors who live out sound ethical principles of medical practice with integrity, wisdom, and kindness.
To start the process of transforming this culture of transaction into a culture of authentic care, it is our intention to launch the proposed Benedictine College School of Osteopathic Medicine.
Who We Are
Benedictine College is an academic community founded in 1858 and heir to the 1500 years of Benedictine dedication to learning, Benedictine College is ordered to the goal of wisdom lived out in responsible awareness of oneself and others, God and nature, family and society.
Our mission as a Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts, residential college is the education of men and women within a community of faith and scholarship.
Trusting in God, we have built an institution of higher education unique in its commitment to forming the whole person for professional, vocational, and moral excellence.
Benedictine College Growth
2,536 Students
Enrollment has more than doubled in the past two decades.
#1 in State for Nursing
Benedictine College was voted the #1 Best Nursing School in Kansas by RegisteredNurses.org for three consecutive years.
A History of Success
Since 2000, Benedictine alumni have had 1 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 7 bishops and 8 college presidents.
Strong Academics
The Wall Street Journal ranks Benedictine College as a Top 10 most-recommended school nationwide. U.S. News ranks Benedictine in its top 10 in the Midwest.
New, Thriving Programs
Benedictine College’s Engineering, Architecture and Nursing programs have seen enormous growth in less than 20 years.
Worldwide Reach
Benedictine College students represent 48 states and 18 foreign countries.
Growing Endowment
Benedictine College’s endowment has grown by 900% over the past two decades.
Faithful Catholic Education
We have been named a Newman Guide Recommended School every year since the Guide’s inception in 2007.
Our Vision
Transform Culture in America
“STEM education is a particular emphasis of Benedictine College. To advance the mission through science and health care, Benedictine College will form students comprehensively in bioethics, develop real-world skills, and foster external relationships to put our students in professional environments where they can be agents of change.”
— Benedictine College, Transform Culture in America Plan
We believe our unique approach to education can transform culture in America by modeling community in an age of incivility, spreading faith in an age of hopelessness, and committing to scholarship in a post-truth era.
Through countless new initiatives, we are extending our reach and broadening our impact so that we can bring authentic Catholic education of the whole person to the areas of our culture that need it most.
Few places need our witness as urgently as healthcare.
“It is not how much we do, but how much love we put into what we do.”
—Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta
The Next Steps
The first critical step in transforming healthcare in America is securing full accreditation as a College of Osteopathic Medicine, which requires $50 million in escrowed funds. Initial donations, loans, grants, and other funding will lay the groundwork for this historic school. These assets will enable Benedictine College to hire top-tier faculty, led by a distinguished Dean, develop a world-class curriculum, and cover essential expenses in preparation for opening. Our vision is to establish a medical school that will shape the future of healthcare in America.
Once preliminary accreditation is secured, plans are in place, and faculty are retained, we will build a beautiful, state-of-the-art medical school building on our campus in Atchison, Kansas, as a permanent home for our medical students and faculty.
To discuss your donation plans, or for more information about Benedictine College or the proposed School of Osteopathic Medicine, please contact:
Dcn. Kevin Tulipana, D.O., M.S.
Associate Dean of Clinical Education, BCSOM
