Courtney Huhn, left, a second-year Kansas University medical student, and Dr. Mary McDonald, right, a geriatrician with the KU Medical Center, consult last week with Mary Williams, a resident at Kansas City Presbyterian Manor in Kansas City, Kan. Huhn is a recipient of the Kansas Student Medical Loan Program. The program pays for her tuition and provides ,000 a month for living expenses. In return, Huhn will work in a rural Kansas community for each year she receives the loan. Huhn, who plans to become a geriatrician, was behind a legislative bill that expanded the loan program to include geriatric medicine.

Kansas City, Kan. ? Twenty-three-year-old Courtney Huhn has wanted to be a doctor for as long as she can remember.

“I definitely wanted to go into the health care field,” she said.

She started working in a doctor’s office as a file clerk at age 15 and then volunteered at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Leavenworth during high school.

After finishing a bachelor’s degree at the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth, she began medical school at Kansas University last year.

She didn’t hesitate to sign up for the Kansas Medical Student Loan program.

The program pays for her tuition and provides $2,000 a month for living expenses. In return, she has to become a primary care doctor and work in a rural community. If she doesn’t, she has to pay back the loan with 15 percent interest.

The program is saving her about $42,000 per year.

Huhn said she wants to be a primary care physician and work in a rural community. She wouldn’t mind living someplace like her hometown of Lansing, which has about 10,000 people and is about 25 miles northwest of Kansas City.

“The program just fits really well with what I want to do,” she said.

But there was one catch.

Huhn wanted to take a one-year fellowship in geriatrics after her residency.

Under the loan program, she would have to pay back a portion of her loan with 15 percent interest during that year she was out of compliance.

Her adviser, Dr. Mary McDonald, encouraged her to talk to state lawmakers. After sending a few e-mails and testifying before legislators at the Capitol, her work paid off.

In March, then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed legislation expanding the program to include geriatric medicine. Basically, it allows Huhn to take her fellowship without the financial penalty.

Huhn hopes it entices other students to get the extra training and help fill a growing need for geriatricians in rural Kansas.

“The older population is increasing, and it’s particularly increasing out in rural areas,” she said. “It’s a really good fit for the loan program because it gets people into that training program, and then they bring that experience out with them into rural Kansas.”