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U.VA. MEDICAL SCHOOL STUDENT AWARDED BOWMAN SCHOLARSHIP

The C. Richard Bowman Memorial Scholarship at the University of Virginia School of Medicine has been awarded to medical student Sarah Marie Commisso of Fairfax, VA.

The fourth-year medical student will receive a year's tuition and fees. Commisso was selected for her integrity, enthusiasm and genuine compassion for the ill – qualities that distinguished the late Dr. Bowman. Bowman was a Staunton native who graduated from the U.Va. School of Medicine in 1974 and died in a sailing accident in 1977. The award is presented annually.

Commisso received her bachelor's degree from Wellesley College in 1996 with a degree in the classics. Upon completion of medical school, she plans to practice pediatric medicine with special interest in the growth and development of children in the U.S. and abroad. She plays the piano and guitar and performs vast amounts of volunteer work, contributing her time to such places as the Charlottesville Free Clinic and the Big Buddy Program.

The scholarship was presented on Monday, October 11, at the Bowman Lecture, AIDS at the Millenium, given by Dr. Warren Johnson, chief of the division of Infectious Diseases and professor of medicine at Cornell Medical College. Commisso is the 22nd recipient of the Bowman Scholarship.

Members of the U.Va. medical faculty select five fourth-year students to be Bowman Scholars each year, one of whom receives the Memorial Scholarship. Other Bowman Scholars selected were Lynn Darby Fogarty of Alexandria, VA; Kimberly Meyers Galgano of Richmond, VA; Marc Christopher Harvey of Greenville, SC; and Ashley Zlatoper Stolle of Atlanta, GA.

October 13, 1999