Endowed Scholarship to Aid High Desert Healthcare Students
Cal State San Bernardino, August 07, 2006.
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Desert Valley Medical Group founder Dr. Prem Reddy has donated $105,000 to Cal State San Bernardino to establish an endowed scholarship to help students in the High Desert pay for their education at the university. Reddy presented a check to CSUSB President Albert Karnig Monday, Aug. 7, to establish the endowed scholarship at the university in his name. “With nursing shortages and many students looking for ways to pay for college, Dr. Reddy’s generosity comes at an especially critical time in regional healthcare,” Karnig said. “This endowed scholarship fund will give more deserving students from the High Desert a wonderful opportunity to participate in one of the university’s several premier healthcare programs.” “The Dr. Prem Reddy Academic Excellence Endowed Scholarship” takes interest earned from the endowed funds and awards it to a qualifying student or students in pre-med, nursing and/or health education programs at CSUSB. A recipient must maintain a 3.5 GPA and be a full-time student in order to continue the scholarship. “I am proud and honored to see my name attached to such a worthy program,” Reddy stated. “We hope to continue seeing top-notch students coming from Cal State San Bernardino at such a critical time for the healthcare industry.” Having founded the Desert Valley Medical Group in 1985, Reddy eventually turned that enterprise into PrimeCare International, a physician practice management company. In 1988 PrimeCare was sold, and in 2001 he re-purchased the Desert Valley Medical Group and Desert Valley Hospital. From these failing operations he turned around Desert Valley Hospital which was then subsequently recognized as a Top 100 Hospital in the Nation twice, in 2003 and again in 2005, by Solucient, a healthcare consulting company. Born in India, Reddy immigrated to the United States with his wife, Venkamma, also a physician, in 1976. His practice in the High Desert began more than 20 years ago after he finished his residency with Down State Medical Center at the State University of New York in Brooklyn. A fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Chest Physicians, Reddy also has been involved in philanthropic work for years. He established the Desert Valley Medical Foundation in 1989. His support of healthcare students in the High Desert is well known, and was reinforced when Victor Valley College named its health sciences school after him following a $1 million donation in 2003. For more information on the endowment, call Roberto Redondo, development director for the CSUSB College of Natural Sciences, at (909) 537-7638. For more information on Prime Healthcare Services, contact Jana Retes, director of marketing for Prime Healthcare Services at (760) 241-8000, ext. 8761 or fax her at (760) 241-0505 For more information about Cal State San Bernardino, call the university’s public affairs office at (909) 537-5007 and visit the university’s news site at http://news.csusb.edu