Cincinnatus Scholar Has Connections to UC s College of Medicine

Emily Hautman of Green Township, Ohio, is one of the University of Cincinnati’s 14 freshmen awarded a full, four-year $80,000 Cincinnatus scholarship to pay for tuition, room and board, books and fees.

The 18-year-old biology/pre-medicine major in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences – and her fellow freshmen full Cincinnatus scholarship recipients – claim the highest number of full-ride Cincinnatus Scholarships since the unique campus competition was first held in 1997.

Hautman says she knew she would pursue a profession in which she could help others, but the discovery of just which pathway came as a rather abrupt surprise. “A few years ago, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go into medicine. I wasn’t sure if the blood would bother me,” she explains. “Then one day when I was 13, I was babysitting a little girl who threw up all over me, and I realized that since I wasn’t bothered by that, I wouldn’t be bothered at all by many of the things that I might see in pediatric medicine. That’s what made my decision!” Hautman says she still occasionally baby-sits the little girl who’s now long past her tummy trouble.

Every winter, the nation’s most high-achieving students come to campus to compete for different levels of scholarship awards. The competition includes essay and leadership exercises, but awards are also determined from a student’s previous commitment to community service. Each Cincinnatus scholar is required to perform 30 hours of community service per year as part of their scholarship commitment. Since the inception of the scholarship program, nearly one million community service hours have been completed by Cincinnatus scholars.

To be considered for the competition, students must submit to UC a complete application – including transcript and test scores – by Dec. 15. The main Cincinnatus XIII Scholarship competition will be held on Feb. 7. Hautman will be one of the scholars volunteering at the scholarship contest.

In addition to her achievement with Cincinnatus, Hautman, a student in the University Honors Program for academically talented students, is also one of 12 freshmen admitted into the Connections dual admissions program sponsored by UC and the UC College of Medicine. Upon completion of her bachelor’s degree and upon filling the requirements of Connections, including scoring at least a 27 on her Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), Hautman will automatically transition to the UC College of Medicine to pursue her medical degree (MD).

Denise Gabrelski, senior academic advisor for UC’s Pre-Professional Advising Center, says a total of 43 students are in this UC dual-admissions program – most are from Ohio. Other students are from Michigan, Tennessee, Maryland and Alaska.

Hautman, a Mercy High School graduate says she felt a little trepidation about beginning classes at UC. “I thought the campus was going to be so big, and I knew classes would be different, since I come here from an all-girl’s high school,” she says.

“But then I became friends with a girl I met at Cincinnatus after we met again at the summer Honors retreat, which is where I got to meet a lot of students taking different majors.”

With an emphasis on knowledge integration and experiential learning, the University Honors Program serves more than 1,600 UC students representing every undergraduate college on campus. Honors coursework and out-of-the-classroom experiences emphasize the University Honors themes of community engagement, global studies, leadership, research and creative arts.

Hautman hails from a family of Bearcats. Her mother, Angela, earned a bachelor's degree in graphic design from UC and her father, Dan, graduated from UC with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. Her sister, Alyssa, is a university-level Cincinnatus scholar and is a third-year civil engineering major. Both of the Hautman women are pursuing careers in the high-demand STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Medicine) professions, and sister Alyssa is also taking part in the top-ranked cooperative education program, which was founded at UC. Emily says she gets her science talent from her dad, but that it’s her mom’s example that resulted in her long-time commitment to service. In addition to service at her church, Hautman has tutored at a neighborhood women’s center and has worked as a program assistant at Girl Scout Camp.

Because of her participation in the UC College of Medicine’s ExSEL program when she was a junior in high school, Hautman also made connections that led to a job at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, where she works 20-hours per week in the lab of Dr. Chip Vorhees and Dr. Michael Williams. She belongs to UC Caducea Premedical Society and the University Honors Association.

As she looks back on her own experience at Cincinnatus, her advice to students in the next competition is to relax. “Once you relax, you’ll feel more personable and you’ll become more approachable,” she says.

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