Ethan Hallmark
To honor the trials of 13-year-old Ethan Hallmark, who passed away in September after a four-year battle with stage 4 high-risk unfavorable neuroblastoma, friends and family established an endowed scholarship in his name in the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine.
The $2,000 scholarship stipend will be awarded annually to a medical student who demonstrates an interest in pursuing pediatric oncology and who is a survivor or has a family member who is a survivor of cancer.
"Ethan’s story is an inspiring one that deserves to be told and to live on,” said Brett Johnston ’98, who is a colleague of Ethan’s father and the person who initiated the scholarship. “The courage and steadfast faith that Ethan and his family members have displayed serve as an inspiration. And if this courage is not enough, Ethan showed an amazingly empathetic heart, often more worried about others than himself. He touched more lives than his family will ever know.”
Dallas-based Trinity Industries Inc., where Johnston and Ethan’s father, Matt Hallmark ’97, are employed, significantly increased the amount of the endowment through their matching gift program and their own gift.
Through the Beads of Courage Program, children with serious illnesses, like Ethan Hallmark - who passed away from cancer in September - receive beads from their health care provider, each representing a treatment or procedure they overcame.
This article was originally published in the fall 2014 issue of Spirit magazine.
Texas A&M Foundation
The Texas A&M Foundation is a nonprofit organization that solicits and manages investments in academics and leadership programs to enhance Texas A&M’s capability to be among the best universities.
You can support the Ethan Hallmark Scholarship and the Health Science Center College of Medicine with a gift of an endowment to the Texas A&M Foundation. For additional information or to learn more about scholarships, research and program-focused giving to benefit the college, contact Andrew Robison '04, with the Foundation at (800) 392-3310, (979) 862-6423 or arobison@txamfoundation.com.
