Sarah Hall says she’s always been service oriented with a desire to contribute to her community. It’s something the fourth-year medical student at the University of South Carolina has understood most of her life, following the example of her philanthropy-minded family.
And it’s something that she found at the USC School of Medicine Columbia, where she was commissioned in the U.S. Army, participated in research at top universities around the country and became a leader in the med school’s chapter of Future Leaders in Medicine, an organization that is raising awareness – and funds – for the fight against childhood cancer. Last fall, she was the event director for the 5K and family fun day that drew over 200 runners and 100 volunteers to raise money for Curing Kids Cancer. All proceeds from this event directly benefited the local Curing Kids Cancer mission in Columbia, South Carolina.
"Being able to connect with patients and families from a clinician standpoint, and then from a philanthropic and research standpoint — it's been a really unique experience that a lot of medical students won't necessarily get," Hall says. "To be able to feel the depth of that has been pretty profound."
A start for leaders
The Future Leaders in Medicine was co-founded by Brandon Gettleman and Kirklen Petersen while they were students at the USC School of Medicine Columbia. Petersen had been involved with Curing Kids Cancer events while she was an undergraduate student and a member of the equestrian team at USC.
“Leadership is something I think is important in the medical field and I wanted to explore that further during medical school,” says Gettleman, who now is a resident in orthopaedic surgery at UCLA with an interest in orthopaedic oncology. He also is now a board member of Curing Kids Cancer.
Curing Kids Cancer, a foundation that has raised more than $30 million to fund research to help cure pediatric cancers, has Gamecock roots, too. The organization was started by USC alumnus Clay Owen and his wife, Grainne Owen, after their 9-year-old son Killian died of leukemia in 2003. Money raised by the foundation supports pediatric cancer research and care at some of the top children’s hospitals around the country. Recently, the Owens fulfilled the organization’s $1.2 million endowment to Prisma Health, where the outpatient hematology and oncology clinic was renamed the Gamecocks Curing Kids Cancer Clinic.
After Gettleman and Petersen connected with Curing Kids Cancer, the Future Leaders in Medicine held its first 5K run and family fun day in 2021. Under the mentorship of faculty advisor Dr. Erika L. Blanck, director of medical anatomy at the USC School of Medicine, the inaugural event raised more than $20,000 for the foundation. But Gettleman says they knew the organization could do more.
“So we went to (Clay and Grainne Owen) and talked about building this more cohesive group and aligning with their national footprint to reach out to high-achieving students across the country to start runs elsewhere,” Gettleman says.
The Columbia 5K run has grown into a turnkey, reproducible template that can be accessed by student leaders around the country. But the organization didn’t stop there.
Clay Owen, who now is a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, credits the idea of working with medical students to his wife, who serves as the president of Curing Kids Cancer.
“She wanted to create this connection with the best and brightest medical students,” Owen says. “We wanted them to understand how they're really helping children and giving it this personal touch. They understand our story and they meet the patients here in Columbia. That gives a face to the children who are fighting.”
But the foundation also wanted it to be a student-driven, servant-leadership initiative that would raise money for pediatric cancer research, he says.
“On the flip side, they're doing all this work locally, but we have these fantastic connections throughout the United States with the best pediatric oncologists. Many of them serve on our medical advisory board,” Owen says. “So, this gives us an opportunity to get to know the best and the brightest students and then introduce them to the best and the brightest professionals. It’s really a win-win for everybody. We get to use their talents in raising money here in Columbia and in other locations, but we also give them a runway to get introduced to some of the best medical professionals in the country.”
Giving back and next steps
For Hall, who has been involved in Future Leaders in Medicine and Curing Kids Cancer since her second year of medical school, the organization fit in well with her desire to give back and make a difference.
She grew up in Pennsylvania and attended the College of Charleston Honors College on a dance scholarship. Dance injuries growing up introduced her to the importance of medical care, particularly orthopaedics. Hall always looked up to the many military service members in her family, and while she wasn’t involved in ROTC in college, her best friend from high school joined ROTC and Hall got to know some of her military friends.
“It felt like a family that I really wanted to be a part of,” Hall says. “And so, once I got into medical school here at the University of South Carolina, I immediately applied for the Army scholarship.”
She received a scholarship through the Health Professions Scholarship Program, which funds the education of students who want to become military physicians, dentists, nurses and other health professionals. In exchange, the students agree to serve in the military after graduation. Hall was commissioned in June 2021.
She also excelled in the classroom and research labs. This fall, she had residency interviews with most of the top 20 orthopaedic surgery programs in the country, including Harvard, Duke, Emory and Carolinas Medical Center. She learned in December she had matched in orthopaedic surgery at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, since the military match takes place before the traditional residency match day in March.
“I am extremely proud to match ortho at Walter Reed and to be selected to serve my country in this way,” Hall says.
And she remains involved with Curing Kids Cancer, now serving as the East Coast vice president for the Future Leaders in Medicine program. She is the point of contact for other schools, pitching the program that is in place at USC School of Medicine Columbia.
“I think that probably is the most rewarding part, being able to see a new program elsewhere take off, really be successful, and see students across the country get so excited about the program that we've put together,” she says. “I hope that it continues to become an increasingly attractive program for medical schools across the country to adopt.”
Check out the next event to benefit Curing Kids Cancer, the 12th annual Fire Truck Pull at Soda City Market in downtown Columbia on March 22.