A presence in Temple for only two years, Baylor College of Medicine has made a significant impact on the community through the volunteer efforts of its local students.

The first class at Baylor’s School of Medicine Temple campus started in August 2023. There are now two full classes of 40 students each, with a third class to start later this summer.

A key part of the school’s curriculum is the Service Learning Program, or SLP. Projects conducted through SLP allow students to augment their academic learning through community engagement.

Students choose a community partner site or social issue and engage in service, education and reflection activities throughout the year, with an event at the end of the academic year where their showcase their work.

Service learning projects are not the only way in which students engage with the community. Temple students also have adopted a tradition started at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Matthew Carter Service Day. Matthew Carter was a Baylor medical student in Houston who was killed in September 2000. For more than 20 years, students have honored his dedication to volunteerism and service through Matthew Carter Service Day, which combines a lecture from a healthcare leader on the meaning of service and a day of volunteering in the community.

“We have some very committed, civic-minded medical students in Temple. Maybe because of the community size, they can engage in a way that allows them to see first-hand the difference they are making in their community,” said Alicia Dunn, chief of staff to the School of Medicine – Temple regional dean and longtime Temple resident who values community service. “I frequently run into the directors and leaders of these organizations, and they are so proud and excited to have the engagement of our medical students within their organizations.”

To date, nine organizations in Temple have benefited from student volunteerism: Family Promise of Bell County (a homeless diversion center), McLane Children’s Hospital Child Life Program, Meals on Wheels, Postpartum Education Program at BSWMC Temple, Ralph Wilson Youth Club, Temple Community Clinic, Temple ISD (as Wildcat Mentors), TLC East Nursing Home and Eleventh Hour at BSWMC Temple, a program, started by a medical student in 2023, where volunteers sit and visit hospice patients with no other family, friends or visitors during their final days.

In recognition of their service, the Office of Temple Mayor Tim Davis issued a proclamation April 10, 2025, in appreciation of first- and second-year Baylor Temple students.

The proclamation reads in part, “Since the BCM Temple campus opened in July 2023, BCM Temple medical students have provided over 2,500 hours of volunteer service in Temple nonprofit organizations. In addition to their rigorous schedule, they commit the time to provide, cook or serve meals in a homeless diversion center, tutor or mentor children, provide postpartum education to new moms, deliver meals to the food insecure, visit residents in a local nursing home, provide flu shots at drive-through flu clinics, teach emergency tourniquet applications, comfort the lonely in their final moments or play with and read to children who have been hospitalized.”

Read more about volunteerism in Q&As with Temple students, Neha Philip, Marin Guthrie and Yahvi Suhalka.

By Dana Benson