George Stoneman, MD, first heard the call of ENT medicine while stationed in Thailand as a U.S. Air Force flight surgeon. Before that, both he and his wife, Laurie, fell in love with travel during student trips abroad. Now the couple has combined these interests and passion for Keck Medicine by establishing the Stoneman Family Global Scholarship in the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery. Their support gives residents and postdoctoral fellows the opportunity to perform medical rotations and conduct research abroad.

“Both of us were fortunate enough to have gone abroad when we were young,” says Laurie Stoneman, who spent a year in Switzerland during high school and then earned her undergraduate degree at the USC Roski School of Fine Arts. “It benefited us for the rest of our lives.”

“It just opened up my world,” George says of his six months in France as an undergraduate at Stanford University. “Having a foreign educational experience is transformative. Both of our kids spent some time abroad in school. We are strong proponents of travel as a vital part of education.”

A different type of overseas experience helped determine his specialty. At the height of the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s, Stoneman was a flight surgeon for a squadron of F-105 pilots. “When pilots go through certain maneuvers, they become disoriented because their inner ears don’t tell them exactly where they are in space, and they have to rely on their instruments and vision to overcome that disorientation,” Stoneman says. “It’s just one aspect of our field, but it got me interested in ENT.”

Stoneman co-founded Los Angeles Ear, Nose and Throat Associates, where he practiced from 1981 to 2010. He then joined a practice in Glendale and La Cañada with friends from his years of training.

“The next thing I knew, that office became part of USC,” he says. “So I’m a USC graduate, donor, faculty member and employee. Laurie and I are both Trojans for life.”

He admits that a deciding factor in attending medical school at USC was the head of admissions’ willingness to waive a quantitative analysis credit so he could complete the semester in France. “That’s how it all started for me at USC,” he recalls. “Because I really wanted to get a foreign education as part of my studies.”

Now the Stonemans want to pass that advantage on to future generations.

The first recipient of the Stoneman Family Global Scholarship is Janet Choi, MD, a third-year resident who holds a master’s in public health in addition to her medical degree. She will visit several sites in Africa, performing ear surgeries and other procedures. Choi also will conduct research to evaluate the status of otolaryngology in Sub-Saharan Africa. She will be gone a month, during which she has added a conference to her packed itinerary. Upon her return, she will share the knowledge she gained overseas with others on the USC Health Sciences Campus.

Coincidentally, Africa ranks among the Stonemans’ favorite destinations. “We’ve been to southern Africa four times and Kenya and Tanzania once. Africa is just a magical place,” Stoneman says.

To make a gift to the Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, click here.