Schmidlapp Recipients Reflect

Since 1996, the Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Scholarship has provided 19 students with financial support for their medical education, totaling $240,000 of aid. 

Awarded to high-achieving medical students in their third-year of study, the scholarship supports students who are involved in their community as leaders and who are invested in women’s health care.

Mary Carol Burkhardt, MD received the Schmidlapp scholarship in 2007. After graduating, she completed a pediatric residency at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, where she also served as chief resident.

Today, she is the medical director of the Hopple Street Neighborhood Health Center which provides pediatric care to an underserved population in Cincinnati. She cites the opportunity to provide preventative-focused care and long-term patient relationships as her favorite part of her practice.

"It was a great honor to receive the scholarship,” she adds, "and I believe the values inherent in it—of leadership and community service—are very important to medicine and something I’ve tried to bring forth in my career.”

Financially, she said the award "makes a huge difference,” given the cost of medical education—"and as someone who went into primary care, I appreciate having a little less debt.”

Heather Kaiser, MD, received the scholarship in 2009, before pursuing residency training in anesthesiology at the University of Washington and the Johns Hopkins Hospital. This July, she will stay at Johns Hopkins to begin a fellowship in cardiothoracic anesthesiology.

At UC, Kaiser was passionate about public health, and continues to conduct research around underserved and minority populations in her medical career. 

In addition to working on research in disaster medicine and public health preparedness, she has participated in studies analyzing health disparities in heart and lung transplantation: "I continue to believe that every physician has a second profession, and that is a career in public health,” she says.

The Schmidlapp scholarship is financially assisted by the Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund Fifth Third Bank Trustee and are connected by history to Jacob Schmidlapp, a prominent Cincinnati banker and philanthropist whose Union Savings Bank merged with Fifth Third in 1919.

The trust has contributed over $1.6 million toward art, health and community initiatives. The scholarship celebrates the memory of Jacob’s daughter, Charlotte. 

›› Read about the 2014 recipient, Rachel Mistur.