A West Virginia University School of Medicine alumni couple is expanding research opportunities for Mountain State medical students with a $100,000 scholarship gift.
The gift from Drs. William and Polley Cunningham establishes a namesake scholarship endowment to benefit students from West Virginia pursuing a medical degree at WVU. First preference goes to students participating in the Initiation to Research Opportunities program, known as INTRO. The endowment may also support an alternate summer research project under the sponsorship of a WVU School of Medicine faculty member.
INTRO is an eight-week summer program that offers first-year medical and pharmacy students hands-on research experience with the guidance and support of an experienced faculty mentor, in partnership with the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
“The INTRO program is an important experience for students – in some cases launching a lifelong commitment to biomedical research,” said Dr. Sally Hodder, WVCTSI director and associate vice president of clinical and translational science at WVU Health Sciences. “We are grateful to the Cunninghams for recognizing the significance of these kinds of early research opportunities and supporting the growth of a culture of research among our students.”
The Cunninghams are West Virginia natives who met in medical school at WVU. Bill hails from Charleston and earned his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University; Polley grew up in Beckley and earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Bill’s experience at WVU inspired the couple’s decision to support the INTRO program. After completing his first year of medical school, Bill spent the summer assisting Gunter Franz, a longtime physiology professor, with research focused on how the vagus nerve affects the heart.
“My interest is in helping medical students get research experience,” Bill said. “In the long view, I think scientific investigation is where progress is made in medicine. The chance for a young person to have research experience might lead them to go into clinical research or, at least, learn a little bit about statistics, how you handle data and all those things involved in science.”
Polley was one of just five women among more than 60 students in the MD class of 1974. She always dreamed of being a doctor, despite discouragement from junior and high school teachers who told her women shouldn’t be doctors.
After marrying and completing their medical degrees, the Cunninghams went on to the University of Virginia for residencies in internal medicine and subspecialty training – in gastroenterology for Bill and rheumatology for Polley. Afterward, the couple returned to West Virginia and joined many WVU alumni at Huntington Internal Medicine Group, where they practiced for over 20 years.
The Cunninghams moved to Lewisburg in 2007, when Bill joined The Greenbrier Clinic in White Sulphur Springs as director of the surgery center. Polley retired at that time, and Bill followed suit about seven years later.
The couple’s gift comes 50 years after they graduated from medical school.
“We owe a lot of gratitude to the University,” Bill said. “The medical education we got from the University enabled our careers and, in retrospect, it was a really wonderful education and opportunity. So, we felt that we ought to give something back.”
The Cunninghams relied on family support to cover their education and chose WVU for medical school because it was affordable.
“When we went to medical school, it really wasn’t very expensive,” Polley said. “At the time, the cost of living and everything was much lower than it is now. But now, medical school is out of reach for a lot of people. The debt that’s incurred by students is humongous, and it’s difficult to earn extra money. You can’t do a research project unless there’s support for it. The cost has gone up so much that we felt it was important to support young people, particularly from poorer areas, that are very talented but don’t have the resources.”
The Cunninghams divide their time between Lewisburg and Boca Grande, Florida. They have two adult children, a son who works as an attorney in Denver and a daughter who works in higher education in California.
The couple’s gift was made through the WVU Foundation, the nonprofit organization that receives and administers private donations on behalf of the University.
