NEW YORK (EFE).- A $1 billion grant from a professor will allow Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York's Bronx, to offer free classes to its students.
The Foundation announced this initiative in a statement.
“This historic gift — the largest ever to a medical school in the country — will ensure that no Einstein student will ever have to pay tuition again,” the center said.
The donor, Ruth Gottesman, was a teacher at the school, which is located in one of the most depressed neighborhoods in the Big Apple.
According to the New York Times, the Bronx has a high rate of premature deaths and is the least healthy borough in New York, while the largest amount of donations to hospitals and medical schools tend to go to wealthy neighbor Manhattan.
By donating a billion, the teacher reduces debt
Thanks to Gottesman's money, left to her by her husband, a Wall Street investor who was Warren Buffett's protégé, when he died two years ago, Einstein's students won't have to face hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt. It accumulates during the race.
The school hopes the donation will attract “a group of talented and diverse individuals who may not have the means to consider a medical education,” according to the statement.
This is not the first time that New York Medical College has offered free tuition to its students. In 2018, New York University School of Medicine announced a similar program to address the high costs faced by the country's students.
For his part, Gottesman did not want his last name immortalized as part of the donation, but he set a condition: that the school retain the name of Albert Einstein, which the legendary physicist had agreed to give to the center when it opened. It opened its doors in 1955.
