People In The News - St. James Native Philip Hall

St. James native awarded scholarship for medical school

Philip HallSt. James native Philip Hall was awarded a prestigious Alumni Legacy Scholarship toward his tuition at Ross University School of Medicine on the Caribbean island of Dominica. This scholarship provides a $21,325 award, covering the full cost of first-semester tuition at Ross. 

Hall earned a Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in Health Management and Policy from Drexel University in 2016. While pursuing his MPH, he was accepted into the “Opening Doors for Diverse Populations to Health Disparities” program, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and offering research opportunities for students. 

Through the Opening Doors program, Hall interacted with underserved communities in West Philadelphia and saw firsthand the health disparities that result from social factors such as environment, poverty, and neighborhood infrastructure. 

“Being born into a low-income community should not constitute receiving far inferior health services,” said Hall. “I hope my journey in medicine will lead me to contribute to a healthier society—one in which where we are born does not make all the difference.”

Hall graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2012 with a dual degree in Science Pre-professional and Anthropology. He conducted research with Notre Dame’s Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases, where he spoke with patient families to better understand their struggles with the health care system. 

Hall has also volunteered as a Big Brother for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Long Island. 

His various experiences, he says, have inspired him with the goal of eventually practicing medicine in underserved communities. 

“I became a true health care provider when I started seeing someone else’s problem as my own and started coming up with ideas for how I could contribute to the solution,” said Hall. “My experiences with sick children and their families represent the population I feel drawn to, the population I want to cure.”