MSTP student honored with UMA award
First-year Medical Scientist Training Program student Loretta Hoover was named the first University Medical Associates/MSTP Scholar in a brief presentation July 1 during a meeting of UMA’s executive committee. Along with the designation, her stipend will be supported by the UMA for her first year in the program.
Dr.
Perry Halushka, director of MSTP, holds a plaque presented to MSTP student
Loretta Hoover by the UMA executive committee July 1. Committee members
are from left: Dr. Fred Crawford, Dr. John Feussner, Bruce Quinlan, Dr.
Paul Lambert, Dr. Bruce Elliott, and Dr. Kate Menard.
Summoned to the meeting without knowing why, Hoover was surprised by the award, though she confessed later to a cryptic remark from a classmate that could have been a clue.
“Now that ‘way to go’ remark makes more sense,” she said.
Hoover is a College of Charleston graduate who credits an interest in biology and “a series of really great mentors” for her decision to enter the MSTP curriculum.
“Also, I’ve experienced a serious illness in my family, and this has convinced me of how important translational research is.” She faces seven to nine years of study, first in the research aspects of her MSTP regimen and later in the medical training she will need to earn both an M.D. and Ph.D. degree. She said her training will help equip her to translate new advances in basic research for use in the latest, most effective patient care.
UMA president, Bruce Elliott, M.D., said that University Medical Associates intends to award a year of stipend support annually to a new student selected by UMA’s scholarship committee. “The UMA leadership felt that the monetary support and recognition of one of our best M.D./Ph.D. students was an important demonstration of commitment to our institution and students.”
“This is a significant event for the MSTP and the UMA,” said MSTP director
Perry Halushka, M.D., Ph.D. “The UMA’s support of this program is a testimony
to its commitment to excellence and making a significant investment in
the future of academic medicine. When I first proposed this scholarship
to the UMA executive committee members, they immediately endorsed it and
put their strong support behind it.
“On behalf of the MSTP, I want to thank the UMA for sponsoring this
scholarship,” Halushka said.
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