Three St. Thomas Air Force ROTC students are among the 24 students across the U.S. awarded a full-ride scholarship from the Air Force Health Professions Scholarship Program to any medical school of their choosing.

Seniors Hank Larson, David Linn and Sam Gentle are the AFHPSP grants scholarship winners, a full-ride scholarship to any medical school and a $25,000 yearly stipend. All applicants must have a minimum 3.2 undergraduate GPA and a 500 Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) with a minimum score of 124 on each of the MCAT subsections.

The three cadets all found out a few weeks ago that they received the scholarship.

“It’s a great opportunity because now I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to pay for medical school. I’ll be able to focus on my academics rather than how to pay for everything,” Gentle said.

Maj. Mitch Johnson, the recruiting and education officer for the detachment, spoke about how hard it is to receive the scholarship.

“For a detachment our size of about 100 cadets, we could expect our fair share of folks who receive this scholarship would be about 1-2 cadets every 5-10 years,” Johnson said. “What it allows us as a detachment is we have three cadets that are going down the path that they want and which is all you can really hope for.”

Along with having the high academics standards, recipients must be great leaders in their detachment and keep up with the physical requirements of being in the detachment. The cadets must take aerospace classes and leadership labs over their time in the program.

“Getting this scholarship from the ROTC is pretty uncommon. Everyone from our attachment who applied, got in,” said Linn, who is majoring in chemistry and minoring in biology.

Larson is in his fifth year with the ROTC at St. Thomas, majoring in chemistry and minoring in biology. Larson’s future plans are to become a flight surgeon: a primary care physician for pilots and their families.

Some of his top medical school choices include University of Wisconsin Madison, University of Minnesota and University of Nebraska. He believes the St. Thomas ROTC has set him up for success.

“Our detachment is really setting cadets up for success, not only the training but the opportunities they inform us with,” Larson said.

Linn’s dream job is to be a trauma surgeon at the Ramstein Airbase in Germany, where soldiers from the Middle East are taken for medical needs. Linn’s dreams of becoming a trauma surgeon are closer to coming true thanks to the St. Thomas ROTC.

“Our attachment has been ranked officially and unofficially in the top ten in the nation,”
Linn said.

Linn’s top choices of medical school are Uniformed Services University in Maryland, Texas Christian University and Creighton University.

Gentle is double majoring in biology and chemistry. He wants to become a trauma surgeon or work with emergency medicine. Gentle said the ROTC has made a big impact on his life.

“I was pretty scatter-minded as a freshman and the ROTC helped me build that routine and discipline. It helped me get better grades and to stay focused. Working alongside my fellow cadets has helped me form a great support network,” Gentle said.

His dream medical school is the University of Chicago.

Having three students selected for this scholarship is a big deal to them and to the detachment.

“Our cadets were able to compete that well and all get selected is something to be proud of for our detachment here. It continues to speak about the students and cadets we have here,” said Johnson.

The St. Thomas ROTC is ranked nationally. Recently, the detachment at St. Thomas was given the best host institution along with other big name schools like the University of Notre Dame and Texas A&M University. The detachment is ranked high in academics and physical fitness.

Rae Beaner can be reached at rnbeaner696@stkate.edu.