A nonprofit is helping military veterans through the medical school application process, and Upstate Medical University in Syracuse has signed on to partner with it.

The nationwide nonprofit, SOF to SOM, which stands for Special Operations Forces to School Of Medicine, has only been around a couple of years, and works to provide mentorships and scholarships for former special ops members.

“We just really thought that that's a gap in this community, especially in the special operations community that we wanted to fill,” said Ricky Ditzel, co-founder of SOF to SOM.

Ditzel spent 8 years serving in the Army as a special ops flight paramedic. After leaving the service, he noticed when he was applying to medical school, there was a lack of support for people like him that served in special forces.

What You Need To Know

  • The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts the U.S. will have a physician shortage of 86,000 professionals by 2036

  • SOF to SOM helps former special ops with research, mentorship, and scholarships

  • Upstate Medical University is the latest partnership with SOF to SOM

“And when they get out of the military, you have this person who's been through all this specialty training on that, at least on the medical side, with all these crazy experiences. And then there's no place to really put that. So we want to take that investment the American people gave us and bring it back,” said Ditzel.

He helped create SOF to SOM, which supports former special ops veterans like SEALs, Green Berets and Army Rangers with mentorships, scholarships and research.

“We're excited they have a lot of the characteristics that are important for future physicians: resilience, adaptability, teamwork, communication skills,” said Robert Ruiz, dean of student affairs at Upstate Medical University.

Applicants don’t get an instant admission. Instead, scholars selected by the nonprofit will get a guaranteed interview as part of the med school application process, which is tough to come by.

“Any medical school, Upstate included, is competitive. You know, we typically get almost 7,000 applicants for our 180 positions,” said Ruiz.

SOF to SOM fills the need to create more doctors by essentially bringing scholars’ applications to the top of the pile.

“One of the things we're really trying to achieve is to provide more health care providers for Central New York,” said Ruiz. “That's the big piece for us, not just come to school here, but then stay here and practice and provide health care for the people of Central New York.”

“We want to fill the gap. We want to help the United States health care system out,” said Ditzel.

So far, SOF to SOM has partnered with six schools, including Upstate Medical, and the vets they’ve helped have a 100% acceptance rate into med school.

This partnership is new for Upstate, and it might enroll some veterans through the SOF to SOM program this summer.