Eight medical students receive Choose Ohio First Primary Care Scholarships

Eight 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: second-year medical students R.J. Sontag of Milford and Columbus and Caleb Dukeman of Beavercreek, Ohio; third-year medical students Cara Schroeder of Sidney, Thao Tran of Dayton, Eric Thuney of Centerville, Ohio, and Austin J. Williams of Trenton, Ohio; and fourth-year medical students Stephen Knox of Zanesville, Ohio, and Zenar Tekeste of Dayton.

This is the first year that Dukeman and Thuney received the scholarship. Knox was a 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 scholarship recipient. Sontag, Schroeder, Tran, Williams and Tekeste also were 2013-2014 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.

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.

“We’re thrilled that eight medical students from the Boonshoft School of Medicine were selected to receive Choose Ohio First Primary Care Scholarships,” said Gary LeRoy, M.D., associate dean for student affairs and admissions at the Boonshoft School of Medicine. “These students are committed to improving health care access for Ohioans, especially in high-need areas throughout Ohio.”