Five area students were selected as recipients of the 2022 Lancaster Medical Society Foundation scholarship awards. The competitive process, which makes selections based on character, motivation, academic achievement, and financial need, included submissions from applicants throughout Lancaster County. As part of the application, students were required to write an essay explaining why they have chosen to pursue a career in medicine. The selection committee chose the awardees through a blind review process.

This year's recipients are Launick Saint-Fort of Ephrata, Nicole Hanselman of Manheim, Hannah Kuntz from Elizabethtown, Rhea Sullivan from Landisville and Kevin Chao of Lancaster.

Saint-Fort, a trauma research coordinator, graduate of Penn State Berks and first-year medical student at the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, was awarded $4,500. For Saint-Fort, whose younger years were spent as a child slave in Haiti, medical school and a potential career as a physician were beyond her wildest dreams. She noted that in childhood, she contracted various illnesses that could have been prevented with quality medical care, which was not available to her.

Hanselman, an Elmira College graduate and research specialist currently in her first year at Saint James School of Medicine in Illinois, received a $3,500 award. She explained that her passion to pursue medicine was conceived in a small orphanage in Vietnam, where she lived after losing her parents and oldest sister. Placed in the orphanage at age 7, Hanselman was assigned to care for the sickest babies, but could only do so much to ease their pain and suffering.

Kuntz, a former medical assistant with AmeriCorps and a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, is a first-year student at the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine. Her passion for medicine was fostered through her volunteer experiences working with underserved populations in Lancaster city and later in Rochester, N.Y.

Sullivan, a fourth-year M.D. and Ph.D. student at the Pennsylvania College of Medicine and a graduate of Pennsylvania State University Schreyer Honors College, shared that her decision to pursue a career in medicine came after experiences she had in college, including witnessing the deaths of both a fellow college student and then a neighbor as a result of addiction.

Chao, a former medical scribe and volunteer smoking cessation counselor, is a Saint Joseph's University (formerly University of the Sciences) graduate and second-year student at Drexel University College of Medicine. Chao's choice to pursue medicine grew from childhood experiences with the health care system. Born with a heart abnormality that was incredibly difficult to manage, he credits his parents, pediatrician and cardiologist for their tireless care, giving him a life that he would not otherwise have had.

Chao, Kuntz and Sullivan were all awarded $2,000 scholarships.

Founded in 1991, the Lancaster Medical Society Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that was formed to grant scholarships to students from Lancaster County who are accepted at or continuing a medical degree at an accredited allopathic or osteopathic medical school.

The scholarship foundation is supported by the Lancaster County medical community, through hospitals and health systems, group practices, individual medical society members, local businesses and Lancaster-area residents. Since its inception, more than $282,000 in scholarships have been given to local students.