Boonshoft School of Medicine students receive Choose Ohio First scholarships

Two additional Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine students were selected to receive a $30,000 Primary Care Medical Student Choose Ohio First Scholarship (PCMS-COF) for the 2016-2017 academic year, bringing the total number of Wright State students receiving the scholarship to five.

Kara Yutzy, a third-year medical student.

The two new recipients are Kara Yutzy, a third-year medical student from West Jefferson, Ohio, and Kristen (Free) White, a fourth-year medical student from Greenfield, Ohio. They join three current recipients: second-year medical student Jarrod Wurm of Republic, Ohio, and fourth-year medical students Caleb Dukeman of Beavercreek, and R.J. Sontag of Milford and Columbus.

The PCMS-COF program was created in 2010 with the passage of Ohio HB 198, Ohio’s patient-centered medical home legislation. Acting on Gov. John Kasich’s recommendation, the Ohio General Assembly appropriated funding for the program in the current biennial budget. Under PCMS-COF, 50 medical students throughout Ohio can receive up to $120,000 in scholarship funding over their four-year medical education. Recipients are selected from Case Western Reserve University, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Ohio University, Ohio State University, University of Toledo, University of Cincinnati and Wright State University.

Scholarship recipients must be Ohio residents. They must show a commitment to community service. They also must commit to a residency in family medicine, primary care internal medicine, primary care pediatrics or combined internal medicine and pediatrics. After completing the residency, each recipient must agree to practice full time in Ohio for at least three years in primary care (family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, medicine/pediatrics or family medicine/psychiatry). As primary care physicians, they must serve Medicaid patients.

Yutzy is passionate about serving the people of Ohio as a family medicine physician. A college class underscored the need for physicians to serve the underserved. While she recognizes the need for health care in other areas around the world and throughout the nation, she is committed to serving in her home state.

“I think about the refugee student I tutored in Dayton whose parents did not speak English; the drug addict I went to church with in Springfield, Ohio, who is trying to get his life clean; the children starving for positive attention at the trailer park in London, Ohio; and the homeless men and women in Dayton who are eager to attend computer classes so they can learn how to find their own jobs on the Internet,” said Yutzy, who grew up on a farm outside of Columbus. “I have become too invested in the communities I have lived in to think of traveling outside the state to practice medicine.”

Kristen (Free) White, a fourth-year medical student.

White plans to become a pediatrician. She is passionate about the continuity of care and the relationships that develop in primary medicine. She wants to collaborate with teachers, administrators and school nurses about childhood nutrition and follow up with them about patients who require medication at school, whether for diabetes or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

“In pediatrics, many generations of a family are a part of the patient’s care, and these social aspects always should be considered and incorporated into a treatment plan,” White said. “Pediatric patients in Ohio are in great need of quality care from birth that can influence the track of their education, adult health status and social outcomes.”

Gary LeRoy, M.D., associate dean for student affairs and admissions at the Boonshoft School of Medicine, said the medical students who received the scholarships are outstanding students who value patient-focused care, community service and research.

“We’re honored that five of our medical students were chosen to receive the Primary Care Medical Student Choose Ohio First Scholarships,” LeRoy said. “These medical students have a passion for improving health care in their communities. They will help strengthen the quality of primary care in Ohio.”

The Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine is a community-based medical school affiliated with seven major teaching hospitals in the Dayton area. The medical school educates the next generation of physicians by providing medical education for more than 444 medical students and 443 residents and fellows in 13 specialty areas and 10 subspecialties. Its research enterprise encompasses centers in the basic sciences, epidemiology, public health and community outreach programs. More than 1,500 of the medical school’s 3,229 alumni remain in medical practice in Ohio.