Hospital Discontinues Scholarship Program

After giving more than $649,000 to 1,122 local students in the past 23 years, Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center is retiring its scholarship fund.

The hospital’s Auxiliary Scholarship Committee has awarded grants to graduating seniors from the Capistrano and Saddleback Valley unified school districts planning to enter the medical field.

“It’s been a good program,” auxiliary Chairwoman Erma Thomas said. The scholarships were also available to hospital employees who wanted to go back to school, she said.

The decision to drop the program was made in January by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, who bought Mission Hospital last spring.

Officials said they felt that money raised by the auxiliary would be better used buying hospital equipment.

Thomas, who has chaired the scholarship committee for the last three years, said that despite the end of the program, 60% of the money raised this year will go to students who reapply for the grants. No new awards will go to high school seniors who graduate in June.

The majority of the funds raised for the scholarships came from the hospital gift shop, which is run by the auxiliary. Money was also raised from sales of photographs of newborn babies at Mission Hospital.