My tour of duty with the IU School of Medicine began in 1970 when I signed aboard as an instructor at the Muncie Center for Medical Education. Two years later, I became an assistant professor of biochemistry at the Northwest Center in Gary and, in 1981, I transferred to the campus at Fort Wayne.

Having this familiarity with three of the eight centers (other campuses are in Evansville, West Lafayette, South Bend, Bloomington and Terre Haute), I am convinced each provides a wonderful educational opportunity for nearly half of IUSM's first- and second-year students.

Students tell me the first attraction of a center is small class size, where they and their professors get to know each other very well. The administrative staff is available to help students in a variety of ways, from steering them through the bureaucratic maze to the simpler tasks of providing them with an emergency supply of ibuprofen, gum or soft drinks.

Proximity is a value that each center offers students. Many prefer a center over the Indianapolis campus to be near their families for emotional support. Married students with families of their own often find the centers especially practical. And, as all medical students know, living close to home saves money.

Collaborative teaching programs exist at many of the sites. Medical students interact with medical graduates in four different residencies at the Muncie Center. Five other centers have interactions with one or more local residency programs. These relationships attract students for postgraduate training and improve the ultimate distribution of highly qualified physicians throughout the state.

Local physicians participate actively in IUSM's early and ongoing education. In Fort Wayne, a number are involved as preceptors for the center's one-month junior clerkship in family medicine, general internal medicine and pediatrics. Currently there are more than twenty-five IUSM senior electives offered in northeast Indiana.

I have invested more than three decades of my professional life with Indiana University School of Medicine in the Centers for Medical Education, an investment that has awarded me great personal and professional satisfaction. But the greatest profit I've realized is knowing that all of our centers prepare students well to become tomorrow's physicians and researchers.

Barth H. Ragatz, PhD, is assistant dean and director of the IUSM Center for Medical Education at Fort Wayne.