By Michelle G. McRuiz, Mirage Magazine
A World of Opportunity Close to Home
Presidential Scholarship Program marks 50 years of supporting exceptional New Mexico students
For half a century, UNM’s Presidential Scholarship Program (PSP) has invested in identifying, supporting, and retaining New Mexico talent by offering renewable scholarships to extraordinary high school students from every county in the state.
The program has grown into one of the university’s most defining investments in student success and talent development. That investment is made possible in large part by generous donors who make annual gifts and create endowments to support PSP.
Each full Sponsor can be matched with a Presidential Scholar and has multiple opportunities to meet and connect with them.
This unique structure makes the Presidential Scholarship something larger than a source of financial aid. While reducing financial stress allows students to focus fully on their studies, the program functions as an intentional partnership among the university, donors, and Scholars themselves.
Together, that partnership creates a powerful model of shared investment in New Mexico’s future. Sustained support gives students the freedom to explore academic and professional paths they might otherwise never consider—and helps ensure that exceptional talent can grow, contribute, and lead close to home.
A Natural Choice
A thread of continuity runs through the PSP: Many PSP donors once were Presidential Scholars themselves. Mark Rainosek, BS ’87, MD ’92, is one such donor. For him, giving to UNM has been a family tradition. His parents, Dorothy and Larry Rainosek, are longtime donors and the owners of two perennially popular Albuquerque eateries, Frontier Restaurant and Golden Pride BBQ, Chicken, & Ribs. They inspired Mark, an anesthesiologist who practices in Albuquerque and Anchorage, Alaska, to help New Mexico students succeed.
More Than Medicine
Mark has supported many Presidential Scholars over the years, including through the newly created PSP Graduate Award. One of his current undergraduate Scholars, Ankit Jaiswal (Albuquerque Academy Class of 2022), is a senior in the BA/MD program, a rigorous eight-year curriculum that puts students on a pathway from undergraduate education to the UNM School of Medicine.
“The program’s mission is to address the healthcare shortage in rural and underserved areas of New Mexico, and to find students who are dedicated to helping New Mexicans,” Ankit says.
Ankit always had been interested in medicine, particularly surgery, but his undergraduate curriculum in health, medicine, and human values opened his eyes to community and global health.
“It looks at health through a broader lens,” he says. “It’s about social determinants of health, lifestyle factors, health policy—all the things that make up a person’s health. My BA program has motivated me to explore other ways to impact health in addition to treating a person.”
Ankit graduates with his BA in Spring 2026 and will enter medical school in July. He’s already racked up some impressive credentials at UNM. In addition to maintaining a 4.0 GPA, he won the Anderson School of Business Tech Navigator challenge two years in a row with his designs for a helmet that monitors concussions in real time and an injectable, expandable foam that can be used for emergency hemorrhage control.
In 2024, Ankit spent six months in South America, shadowing and observing physicians as they worked to implement telemedicine programs in rural areas. He also accompanied nursing staff on visits to low-income households and spoke about telemedicine in local media.
“That work was an amazing experience,” says Ankit.
“In those parts of the world, people don’t know much about telemedicine. I got to be part of starting a rural telemedicine program and convincing people to adopt it.”
