MEDICAL STUDENTS FROM TUCSON WIN SCHOLARSHIPS

MEDICAL STUDENTS FROM TUCSON WIN SCHOLARSHIPS 

Three medical students from Tucson were among the six Arizonans awarded Founders’ Scholarships from the Tucson Osteopathic Medical Foundation to encourage them to remain in the state after training.

Tucsonans Daniel Maas,

Sangwon Moon

and Esther Quintero

all won scholarships. Maas and Moon both attend Midwestern University-Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine (AZCOM) in Glendale. Quintero attends A.T. Still University-School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (SOMA) in Mesa. All three are osteopathic medical students in their second year (OMS II).

The Tucson Osteopathic Medical Foundation awards $25,000 in Founders’ Scholarships annually to students enrolled at Midwestern University-AZCOM and A.T. Still University-SOMA. A total of $12,500 is split between three students at each school.

The three other scholarship winners are natives of the Phoenix area. Justin Dickson, OMS III from Chandler, attends Midwestern University-AZCOM while Joshua Burton, OMS II from Mesa, and Casey Carney, OMS II from Scottsdale, both attend A.T. Still University-SOMA.

As part of the Founders’ Scholarship criteria, all six recipients have strong ties to Arizona.

“By supporting these talented medical students, we hope to encourage them to stay in the area and enrich our medical community,” said Steve Nash, TOMF Executive Director. “It’s part of our long-term goal of improving public health in Arizona.”

The scholarship winners also look forward to making a positive impact after graduation.

“Not many career choices offer that rewarding nature of medicine in having to pay your dues through hard work but eventually being able to see the results of your hard work through the tangible differences you are able to make in the lives of your patients,” Moon said in his essay to the Foundation.

The cost of their medical school runs between $160,000 and $170,000 for four years of enrollment. To maximize the benefit of the Founders’ Scholarships, they are applied against the highest interest loans the recipients have taken out.

“The happiest physicians I know were careful with their finances and their loan burdens,” Dickson wrote, “and are content with their careers because they are not still struggling to pay down a massive student loan fifteen years after graduating.”

Tucson Osteopathic Medical Foundation, a private operating nonprofit foundation, was created in 1986 from the proceeds of the sale of Tucson General Hospital.