Three students from northeast Kentucky are the recipients of 2015 scholarships from the St. Claire Foundation.
Tayler Rogers of Owingsville and Colton Thayer of Tollesboro will each receive $1,000 Richard J. Bausch Family Scholarships. Hannah Pollitt of Hillsboro is the recipient of this year’s $750 Sister Mary Jeannette Wess, SND Scholarship.
Rogers was this year’s Bath County High School valedictorian. She will attend Transylvania University this fall and has aspirations of becoming a dermatologist.
“The numbers of skin cancer occurrences are drastically increasing,” Rogers said. “I know that I can make an impact as a dermatologist. I plan to complete medical school and return to my hometown in order to start my own practice.”
Thayer graduated summa cum laude from Lewis County High School this year. He will be pursuing a pharmacy degree at the University of Kentucky.
“I have learned that there are more than 50 specialties for a pharmacy degree outside of the traditional retail pharmacy degree,” Thayer said. “I also enjoy the research facet of pharmaceuticals and may pursue a career in this area.”
The Richard J. Bausch Family Scholarship is funded by an endowment that was established in memory of the father of Greg Bausch, PharmD, SCR Vice President and COO, St. Claire Medical Group. To qualify for the scholarship, an applicant must be a pre-professional health sciences student and a resident of an Appalachian county.
Pollitt is a junior in Morehead State University’s Baccalaureate Nursing Program. Her goal is to work in a rural healthcare facility in Kentucky and become a nurse practitioner.
“At the tender age of 15, I entered my first healthcare class. Throughout that introductory course, I not only learned, I fell in love with health care,” Pollitt said. “For the first time I realized the body is layers upon layers of systems, and it pushed me to pursue a more intimate relationship with all things health care.”
Established in 1995, the Sister Mary Jeannette Wess, SND, Health Education Fund is named in honor of St. Claire Regional Medical Center’s third President/CEO. Students from the SCR service region who are entering at least their junior year of college may apply for this scholarship.
While in high school, all three scholarship recipients participated in the Northeast Kentucky Area Health Education Center’s Rural Health Scholars Program, which provides additional educational support to high school juniors and seniors who are highly interested in pursuing a health care career.
The Rural Health Scholars Program is a competitive applicant program that helps to prepare students for entry into a health career training program at any post-secondary institution.
(story provided by St. Claire Regional Medical Center)
