Scholarship opens options for future physician

As a high school student, Meredith Peck spent a week at the hospital where her uncle was a neurosurgeon, donning scrubs and observing a heart surgery, a spinal surgery, and the removal of a colon.

“I think I’ve been into medicine since I was a really little kid,” said Peck, who has just begun her medical residency.

Peck, who grew up in Holderness, recently finished medical school at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Harlem, in New York City. She received Charitable Foundation scholarships during each of her four years of medical school, assistance she said has allowed her freedom to explore additional learning – like attending osteopathic conferences and completing Wilderness First Responder certification – and will enable her to set off on the right foot when she completes her medical training.

“The scholarship is extremely generous, and it’s been a real blessing,” she said. Scholarships reduced the amount of student loans she had to take, she said, which “really sets me up to be in a much better place leaving medical school.”

Peck plans to return to New Hampshire to practice  family medicine in communities facing an increased need for primary care physicians – and where she feels a strong connection to her home state.