From Passion to Practice: Inside Stony Brook’s Scholars for Medicine Program

When Meenu Johnkutty arrived at Stony Brook University as a freshman, she already had a reserved seat at the Renaissance School of Medicine (RSOM) waiting for her. She was one of just 10 students accepted into the university’s Scholars for Medicine program, an eight-year track that offers high-achieving high school seniors a direct path to an MD, with no separate medical school application required.

But what does it take to earn a place in the highly coveted program?

“These students are all academic superstars in high school,” said Andrew Wackett, MD, vice dean of undergraduate medical education in the RSOM. “We look at their personal attributes — maturity, thoughtfulness, communication skills, and well-roundedness. How will they add to the med school community?”

Inspired by her mother, a nurse of over 20 years, Johnkutty began volunteering at a local rehabilitation hospital in eighth grade. “They gave me small tasks, like handing out daily itineraries to patients,” she said. “But what I really loved was talking to the patients, just being there, connecting. That experience stayed with me.”

Throughout high school, Johnkutty participated in neuroscience research through a program at New York Medical College, volunteered with spinal cord injury patients and shadowed neurologists. “I knew early on that medicine combined everything I loved — science, service, and human connection.”

For students accepted into the Scholars for Medicine program through the Honors College, WISE or University Scholars, students experience freedom from the traditional med school application process, early exposure to medical experiences, and a built-in community of peers within the program.

Johnkutty said the relationships she built through the program were one of its greatest gifts. “Everybody in the program is my best friend,” she said. “We started off as a cohort of ten, and naturally became close. One of my best friends is in the program and is now pursuing vascular surgery at Mount Sinai. We were freshman roommates, and we just went skiing last weekend.”

As an undergrad, Johnkutty continued her research in spinal cord injuries with mentors at Stony Brook and Columbia. She majored in biology and minored in journalism, something she said the flexibility of the program allowed her to explore. “Stony Brook gave me the space to pursue more than medicine,” she said. “That’s part of what made my experience so fulfilling.”

Now a fourth-year medical student, Johnkutty is preparing to begin her internal medicine residency at Brown University. While her path has shifted slightly from her early passion for neurology, her foundation, she says, was built at Stony Brook.

“The science classes at Stony Brook were incredible. They gave me a deep understanding of physiology that I carried with me into med school,” she said. “Medical school is like drinking from a fire hose, but I felt prepared.”

Her advice to high school students hoping to join the program is to focus less on checking boxes, and more on crafting a story that reflects who you are and why you’re pursuing medicine.

“There were students who did research, and students who didn’t,” she said. “But everyone had a story, something life-changing they could articulate with sincerity and clarity. At the end of the day, we want doctors who can connect. That’s more important than any award or title.”

— Beth Squire