Scholarship Supporting Pre-Med Students Pursuing Radiation Oncology

The American College of Radiation Oncology (ACRO) established the Helen Barr Memorial Scholarship through ACRO’s Dr. Luther Brady Foundation.  

The scholarship annually supports pre-med students as they begin their career path in radiation oncology. It provides $500 to a student who has submitted research approved for presentation at the ACRO Annual Meeting.

Helen’s breast cancer journey spanned more than 40 years. In her early 40s, she had a radical mastectomy of her left breast that left a large scar across half of her chest and a cavity under her arm where her lymph nodes had been. She received radiation therapy but not chemotherapy. In 1999, Helen was diagnosed with a tumor in her right breast and had a second mastectomy, but did not get radiation or chemo. Her final diagnosis was 10 years later - stage 4 metastatic. Helen opted for hormone blocker therapy, which gave her another year.

The inaugural Helen Barr Memorial Scholarship was awarded to Mitchell Finkelstein, a student at Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University. He will be presenting an abstract/poster at The Radiation Oncology Summit: ACRO 2025 on Novel Radiation Therapy Strategies in Oligometastatic Disease: Building Upon a Legacy of Homebody Irradiation.

“Our motivation in creating the scholarship is to help in some small way develop future clinicians who will passionately care for other patients and families,” said Fraser.

The ACRO Scholarship Committee will determine the award annually based on abstracts submitted for the Annual Meeting by pre-med students. Visit acro.org/annual_meeting to learn more and submit an abstract.  

ELIGIBILITY

• ACRO student membership: The application for ACRO membership can be found at acro.org/membership.
• Abstract submitted for ACRO Annual Meeting: The scholarship is granted to a pre-med student who submitted an abstract approved for presentation at the ACRO Annual Meeting. Submit your abstract here.
  

SUPPORT FUTURE RADIATION ONCOLOGISTS

• If you would like to support students pursuing radiation oncology through the Helen Barr Memorial Scholarship, click here to make a donation through the Dr. Luther Brady Foundation. Please include "Helen Barr Memorial Scholarship" in your donor comments.
  

Please email Fraser Cobbe if you have questions about this scholarship or are interested in creating your own scholarship program to support students pursuing radiation oncology.