Academic Programs
Salem Scholars Program

The Salem Scholars Program is a four-year scholarship and leadership program for incoming students at Salem College who are interested in health and have a demonstrated record of academic excellence and leadership. Accepted students are named Salem Scholars and receive 100% funding for their tuition including paid tuition for study abroad experiences.
Student Experience
Salem Scholars will:
- Engage leadership development experiences intentionally tailored to the Salem Scholars, directly connecting them to leaders on campus and in the community.
- Enroll in relevant courses as a cohort.
- Participate in health leadership experiences such specialized seminars, service events and a mentorship experience.
- Be mentored by women leaders from the REACH Women’s Network.
All of these experiences are in the interest of fostering community among the Salem Scholars and developing future leaders to create a better, healthier, more equitable world.
Salem Scholars will:
- Develop self-knowledge, an awareness of self and identify one’s strengths and values to foster their leadership potential.
- Develop and maintain quality relationships with the guidance of mentors and the support of one another.
- Develop the awareness, knowledge, and cultural competence skills to understand and work with people from a diversity of backgrounds.
- Improve on measures of self-efficacy, confidence, and autonomy through leadership assessments.
- Demonstrate responsibility and accountability across campus.
- Engage in teamwork in projects addressing complex ideas and practices from a range of academic disciplines and explore how to make the world a better, healthier, and more equitable place.
- Effectively communicate with peers as well as industry leaders and women health leaders about the topics and issues that affect the health of individuals, communities, and society.
- Engage in ethical reasoning and inquiry to demonstrate integrity.
- Demonstrate health-related knowledge conveying understanding the power, importance, and complexity of health in our society.
- Actively pursue new opportunities through study abroad/study away that challenge them in new ways and expand their thinking and their worldview.
Health Leadership Highlights
- All of the Salem Scholars enroll in the required SALEM 100: Wellness and Leadership together to explore one’s own strengths, the foundational concepts of the Social Change Leadership model, and connections to the social determinants of health, well-being, and gender from intersectional angles. This foundational course provides the Salem Scholars, as a cohort, to engage with fundamental questions about health, society, and leadership.
- The Salem Scholars are also connected with leaders in health-related fields through seminars, podcasts, service projects, invited speakers on campus, such as through the Health Leadership Forum; events with President McGee, internships through the Lucy Rose Center; and global health study abroad programs with tuition for these programs paid for through the Salem Scholars scholarship.
Program Leadership

JaNae Joyner
Vice President of Mission and Strategy and Chief of Staff

Summer McGee
President of Salem Academy and College; Professor of Health Sciences
To meet other faculty, please go to the faculty/staff directory.