Methodist Stone Oak Hospital has presented two exceptional Ronald Reagan High School Students each with a $1,500 scholarship to help them pursue careers in health care. The Hospital of the Future Scholarship was awarded to Kanwal Ali who plans to attend the University of California Los Angeles in the fall. She plans to become an orthopedic surgeon. As part of the application process, each student was asked to write about three important health care innovations they believed would be developed in the next 20 years. Kanwal wrote about the use of telomerase inhibitors to hinder the growth of cancer cells, the use of anti-angiogenesis therapy and advancements in robot-assisted surgeries. Kanwal is the daughter of Nasim Ali.

Boyang “Bill” Han also received the Hospital of the Future Scholarship. He will attend the University of Texas at Austin and plans a career as a medicinal chemist/pharmacist. Bill’s essay discussed scientists’ efforts to use “chemokine” to fight the spread of cancer cells; making pharmaceuticals less expensive and more accessible and efforts to provide a more fair distribution of health care services and products to all Americans. Bill is the son of Hai-Chao Han and Chen Cao.

The Methodist Stone Oak Hospital of the Future Scholarship was announced in spring 2006 at the groundbreaking ceremony for the hospital. Each year the hospital has awarded two $1,500 scholarships to graduating students in Stone Oak planning careers in health care. The hospital opened at 1139 East Sonterra Boulevard in March 2009.