Seven Boonshoft School of Medicine students receive Choose Ohio First Primary Care Scholarships

Seven students from the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine were selected to receive a Choose Ohio First Primary Care Scholarship.

The following students will receive an annual scholarship of $30,000: first-year medical student R.J. Sontag of Milford and Columbus, Ohio; second-year medical students Cara Schroeder of Sidney, Ohio, Thao Tran of Dayton, Ohio, and Austin J. Williams of Trenton, Ohio; third-year medical students Stephen Knox of Zanesville, Ohio, and Zenar Tekeste of Dayton, Ohio; and fourth-year medical student Ashley Hotz of Springboro, Ohio. Hotz and Knox also were 2012-2013 scholarship recipients.

Under the Choose Ohio First Primary Care Scholarship Program, 50 medical students can receive up to $120,000 in scholarship funding over their four-year medical education. The program was created with the passage of Ohio HB 198, Ohio’s patient-centered medical home legislation.

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 practice, primary care internal medicine, primary care pediatrics or combined internal medicine and pediatrics in Ohio. After completing their residency, they must agree to practice full time in Ohio for three to five years in primary care (family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, medicine/pediatrics or family medicine/psychiatry). As primary care physicians, they must accept Medicaid patients.

“Our students are well-deserving of this scholarship. They plan to return to their home communities to fulfill a need in primary care,” said Gary LeRoy, M.D., associate dean for student affairs and admissions at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine. “They have the desire to help others and practice in underserved communities. They are passionate about strengthening Ohio communities by providing quality primary care.”