NEOMED students selected for premier aging research program

Every year, hundreds of rising second year medical students from across the country are hand-picked to spend the summer at renowned Centers of Excellence in Geriatrics to learn about geriatrics research through the Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) program.

Last summer, Northeast Ohio Medical University students represented an impressive 10 percent of this selective group. And this year, eight NEOMED students have been chosen to study at such highly ranked institutions as Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, University of North Carolina and New York University through the MSTAR program, administered by The American Federation for Aging Research and the National Institute on Aging.

In sessions lasting from eight to 12 weeks, students gain both research and clinical experiences. Part of the MSTAR application process requires that the students have a local geriatrician who will serve as their mentor once they return from the MSTAR program. NEOMED faculty members certified in geriatrics generously give their time to have students shadow them and write their letters of recommendation. The local mentors and their students devise a plan that continues to promote the students’ interest in geriatrics as a potential career. Jennifer Drost, D.O., assistant professor of family and community medicine, helps match the students with local mentors.

Passing the baton

The faculty of NEOMED’s Office of Geriatrics, led by assistant professors of family and community medicine Barb Palmisano and Margaret Sanders, know that nothing beats student-to-student advice when it comes to housing, transportation and stipends. So they recently arranged a working lunch, offering the opportunity for second-year medicine students who participated in the MSTAR program last summer to share their best advice with the first-year students selected for this year’s program.

How can they make the most out of their research? Should they take the bus to their research site? What’s there to do on the weekends at Johns Hopkins? These topics and many more came up for discussion as the experienced students mentored the newbies.

2018 participants

• Ritika Gudhe
• Jasmine Binod
• Devon Smith
• Reha Rabbani
• Ahana Walia
• Dominic Bucci
• Keval Yerigeri
• Gerardo Corsi
• Ragavi Lanka
• Shane Mathews

2019 participants

• Hadiyah Ahmed
• Ishita Garg
• Jordan Johnson
• Punita Peketi
• Rachana Raghupathy
• Maleck Saleh
• Siddhartha Singh
• Whitney Stolnicki