Candace Johnson has always been interested in medicine, and looked to physicians who were members of her church as role models to emulate.

Johnson, a first-year student at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, performed research at the National Institutes of Health and attended a medical conference in Seattle before experiencing work in an emergency room. “That sealed the deal,” she said.

While enthusiastic about emergency medicine, Ms. Johnson said it is too early in her medical education to settle on a specialty. “But emergency medicine is one I’m definitely exploring.”

The Class of 2011 member performed her undergraduate work at Tennessee State University, where she majored in biology.

She serves as president of the School of Medicine’s Black Medical Association chapter. The organization, she explained, seeks to help minority medical students, and to increase the number of such students. In March, she will travel to New York for the organization’s national conference.

Ms. Johnson, 25, said what she finds most surprising about her medical school experience to date is the diversity of non-medical interests among her fellow students.

“People have this stereotype of medical students as nerds who have their noses in books all the time,” she said. “While they do study hard, I’ve met so many who have diverse outside interests.”

For Ms. Johnson, those interests include writing poetry. While at West Bloomfield High School, she wrote a song titled “We Are One” for the school’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. She wrote the lyrics and a teacher assisted with getting the music down on paper. Johnson sang the song at the celebration, which was attended by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The governor was so moved she invited Johnson to perform the song in Lansing at her inauguration.

Ms. Johnson said she selected the Wayne State University School of Medicine because it allows her to remain close to home and family, but also because of the care it provides for the residents of Detroit and surrounding communities.

“I see a big need in this area for physicians,” she said. “The School of Medicine helps fill that need.”