Four years ago, medical student Seth Spanos and his friend Daniel Ward applied for and received a four-year grant from the Association of American Medical Colleges to fund the Utah Rural Outreach Program.

The program allowed Health Science students to travel to rural high schools and give presentations about health professions.

Spanos recently received a $28,000 scholarship from the Pisacano Leadership Foundation to continue pursuing his leadership, academic and community service goals.

The foundation only gives out five such scholarships a year to medical students committed to the study of family medicine.

Aside from using the money to pay off numerous debts from his three previous years of medical school, Spanos will be able to use some of the money to attend various conferences and seminars throughout the country, he said.

This aspect of the scholarship is designed to give medical students exposure to various family medicine internships as well as public policy leadership opportunities.

The foundation wants to encourage medical students to become active, contributing members of the communities they become physicians in, Spanos said.

This was Spanos’ intention when he began studying family medicine, he said.

In Heber City, family physicians are active and well-known members of the community. They need to be well-rounded in various specialties because they may need to deliver a baby in the morning and prescribe arthritis medication to an old man in the afternoon, Spanos said.

Spanos’ commitment to serving the health needs of rural areas also earned him a National Health Service Corps Scholarship a few years ago that helped with his tuition.

After graduation in May, Spanos is looking forward to returning to Heber City with his wife and young daughter to practice in the area where he grew up.

[email protected]