Alice L. Walton School of Medicine Launches with Whole-Health Vision

In July 2025, the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine (AWSOM) welcomed its inaugural cohort of 48 students in Bentonville, Arkansas, offering free tuition for the first five classes to support accessible and transformative medical education. AWSOM was founded by Walmart heiress Alice Walton in 2021 and is designed to train physicians through a whole-health model that integrates clinical science, the arts, humanities, nutrition, and value-based care from the very beginning.

Students experience innovative learning methods including narrative medicine, reflective writing, improvisation, and museum-based clinical reasoning within the school’s 154,000-square-foot campus, co-located with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The curriculum emphasizes empathy, self-care, and community engagement as core components of medical training.

The school is closely connected to the Heartland Whole Health Institute, an 85,000-square-foot wellness center offering yoga, tai chi, nutrition counseling, and art and healing exhibitions. This proximity allows students to learn integrative care strategies and observe holistic practices in action.

AWSOM prioritizes creating an economically diverse and locally rooted physician workforce. One-third of its first students come from rural Arkansas communities and another twenty percent from neighboring states. Leaders plan to expand to ninety-six students per class as programmatic accreditation progresses.

The launch of AWSOM represents a bold vision for the future of medical education, combining creativity, community, and whole-person health to prepare physicians who can meet the needs of underserved populations and advance integrative medicine practices.