Her medical education and volunteer work in the city of Detroit is leading Erica Huddleston to a career as a family physician dedicated to serving urban areas.

Ms. Huddleston, 25, is a native of Indianapolis, Ind. The second-year student now lives in Detroit. She completed her undergraduate degree at Indiana State University, majoring in Life Science. She then attended a master of science in medical science program at Indiana University/Purdue University Indiana.

Her research internship at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis led to the March 2007 publication of “Optimal End-Organ Protection for Thoracic and Thoracoabdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair Using Deep Hypothermic Circulatory Arrest” in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Ms. Huddleston became interested in medicine at an early age.

“As a child, I was always fascinated by the doctor's medical equipment,” she said. “My pediatrician even allowed me to participate in my check-ups and fiddle with the tongue depressors and stethoscope. It was then that I decided that I wanted to be a doctor.”

She began taking part in job shadowing opportunities in a variety of departments. However, it was her experience in a pediatrics ward under the supervision of Dr. Francis Gray at Wishard Hospital, that she became interested in that field.

“Dr. Gray is an African-American woman who opened my eyes to the endless array of opportunities that are available not only for African-Americans, but for women in general,” Ms. Huddelston explained. “Dr. Gray had a special connection with each of her patients. She knew more about their lives than what was listed on the chart; she connected with them on a personal level. Her compassion and love for her career inspired me to want to be able to share that same personal connection with my patients. She showed me that medicine requires so much more than just textbook knowledge.”

Ms. Huddleston quickly knew she belonged at the School of Medicine. “Entering a class of 300 students was a bit intimidating. However, on the first day, I knew that this school was different. The sheer diversity of our class was outstanding, and the warmth and generosity of my fellow classmates has been amazing. I now feel as if I am part a family of talented future physicians.”

Her interest in attending the School of Medicine was piqued more than three years ago when she was informed about the facilities by an undergraduate premedical advisor.

“I soon began to do some of my own research on the school and found that it had many of the qualities that I wanted in my pursuit for higher education,” she said. “Not only was the mission statement in compliance with what I believed was necessary for a solid education and a successful career as a physician, but the diversity of the school and its students also provided a great atmosphere that was not available at other colleges and universities.”

Ms. Huddleston serves as co-coordinator for Covenant House Michigan, a shelter for homeless and at-risk youths that also provides GED and job training. She has also served as a mentor and tutor for the residents for two years. In addition, she works with the YDI Drug Prevention Program to educate elementary school students on the hazards of drugs. She is a member of the Black Medical Association and the PULSE Academy; the Social and Hospitality Committee; the SNMA National Conference Committee; Reach Out to Youth; the High School Apprenticeship Program; and the Health Unit on Davison Avenue Clinic.

Because of her SOM experience in the Detroit community, Ms. Huddleston has decided to continue her medical career in primary care as a family physician serving urban areas.

The experience of watching doctors successfully battle his mother’s breast cancer is leading a Wayne State University School of Medicine student to a career in radiation oncology.

Brandon Mancini, 22, said he felt strongly about a career in medicine while in high school. He was attracted to radiation oncology when his mother developed breast cancer in 2002. She is now in her sixth year of remiss.

“The amazing team effort that I witnessed between my mother and the doctors and nurses who treated her has forever allied my heart with the field of medicine, and more specifically radiation oncology,” he said. “I have such a respect and enthusiasm for the field, and I am looking forward to providing my patients with the same care that was given to my mother.”The first-year medical student who now lives on campus is originally from Canton. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of Michigan.

The Class of 2011 president also serves as a student representative on the Medical Alumni Association Board. He is one of only nine first-year medical school students elected into the Aesculapians Honor Society this year. The honorary service organization is devoted to the city of Detroit and the School of Medicine. In addition, he tutors children ages 5 to 12 at the Wayne County Family Center as part of Project H. He was recently elected a clinic co-coordinator for Project H, with the responsibility of managing the health clinic operations at the center.  He also participates in Code Blue, a group that delivers lessons about various topics, including health, fitness, career planning and goal setting, to children at a Highland Park elementary school.

Mr. Mancini said the diversity of the School of Medicine student body was a pleasant surprise. “There are students of all ages, backgrounds and cultures, and it has been such an amazing experience to interact and form friendships with such a great group of people,” he said.

He explained that he chose to pursue his medical education at the Wayne State University School of Medicine because he found the opportunities the school offers to assist and treat an urban population appealing.

“Even with my limited clinical exposure thus far in my medical school career, I have found it very rewarding to interact with patients and understand the difficulties associated with providing healthcare to an urban population,” he said.

After graduation, Mr. Mancini sees himself as a radiation oncologist, raising a family, and volunteering and improving the community he will live in.

School of Medicine student Dafina Wise has been awarded one of five national Satcher Fellowships by the Student National Medical Association. She will use the $5,000 award to research the link between Vitamin D deficiency and weight loss.

Only five of the awards are granted nationwide to first- or second-year medical students who are members of the Student National Medical Association. The fellowships are granted in conjunction with Pfizer.

The award is named for former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, who served from 1998 to 2002. Dr. Satcher, said Ms. Wise, was interested in obesity prevention and health disparities. She plans to further that interest with her Satcher Fellowship research project this summer. Ms. Wise, with mentor Dr. John Flack, chair of the Internal Medicine Department, will analyze the link between Vitamin D and parathyroid hormone levels in relation to weight loss among African-Americans, particularly women. She will present her research next year when the 2009 Satcher Fellowships are awarded.

Ms. Wise, 25, traveled to New York this week to accept her award.

The first-year student with the School of Medicine was born in Detroit, but raised in Orlando, Fla. She graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in food science and human nutrition.

Her interest in obesity intervention began at an early age. She lived in a household focused on health and nutrition. She and her siblings ran track and played basketball. Her parents instilled the importance of a healthy diet, raising her on organic foods.

Ms. Wise said she knew she wanted to become a physician since age 6. “I always knew I wanted to be a doctor,” she said. “I was passionate about science. My father often bought me models of the human body that I put together.”

While she wants to practice either family medicine or pediatrics, Ms. Wise said missionary medicine will be in her future. She recently returned from just such a trip to Costa Rica with members of the School of Medicine’s chapter of the World Health Student Organization. While there, Wise and her colleagues brought medical care to those who often go without it.

“We had the chance to treat the very poor, and those on Indian reservations,” she explained. “That’s an aspect of medicine I’ll definitely pursue. I’m very interested in Doctors Without Borders, and I’d like to treat AIDS patients in Africa.

“I chose Wayne because I really wanted to serve the underserved,” Ms. Wise said. “I’m very attracted to the humanistic side of medicine. I really like the diversity at Wayne; I like that we have all these different cultures represented here.”

Melissa Dobson hopes to play a major role in the ongoing battle against cancer as a researcher exploring new findings that may one day lead to a cure.

Ms. Dobson, 26, is a Ph.D. candidate in the Cancer Biology program at the School of Medicine. The Sterling Heights native, who attended Macomb Christian High School in Warren, is interested in intercellular signaling.

“I like to study how proteins react and influence each other,” she said. That interest led Ms. Dobson to launch a career in cancer research.

“I always knew I wanted to be a researcher,” Ms. Dobson said. “I wanted to be in the lab, discovering why things happen.”

Ms. Dobson, a third-year student, said she truly became interested in medical research during her third year as an undergraduate at Wayne State University. She graduated from WSU with a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry.

The rigors of her education have caused Ms. Dobson to set aside – for now – some outside interests, especially an artistic bent that includes drawing, calligraphy and stained glass.

The arts may have to wait a little longer for Ms. Dobson, who is considering a post-doctoral program after graduation. “I’m not sure whether I will teach or become solely a researcher, but I will definitely become a researcher.”

She said she selected the Wayne State University School of Medicine because of the excellent reputation of the Ph.D. program.

“I was really impressed by the program and the caliber of people here,” she said. “I know several people who went through the program and was impressed with where they ended up.”

Emily Swan plans to use her education to counsel families with genetic predispositions to neuropathy and assist in earlier screening for Michigan residents prone to develop cancer.

The 26-year-old native of Royal Oak now lives in Madison Heights. A second-year graduate student in the genetic counseling program at the School of Medicine, she completed her undergraduate work at the University of Michigan, where she majored in biology.

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Ms. Swan first taught high school classes, and then worked as a research assistant in the Wayne State University Neurology Department. Her work there exposed her to clinical research and genetic counseling.

“I worked in the Charcot-Marie-Tooth clinic at WSU, and realized that I liked working one on one with patients,” she said. “Genetic counseling is a way for me to combine my interests in teaching, science, health, and medicine.

Ms. Swan is particularly interested in neurogenetics and cancer counseling because of her clinical research on Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, an inherited peripheral neuropathy that affects the limbs. “I’m interested in cancer counseling because it’s a field that also has aspects of public health. We can make health-promoting suggestions for cancer screening that can save lives.”

Her goal after graduation in May is to work as a genetic counselor in the Detroit region. “I have learned so much and gained so many skills in such a short amount of time,” she said. “I have enjoyed working with patients and hearing the stories that people bring to [the] clinic. Genetic counseling not only involves one patient, but involves whole families as well.”

When not in school or studying, Ms. Swan enjoys reading, bicycling, Jazzercise, geo-caching and synchronized figure skating.

Ms. Swan said she selected the Wayne State University Genetic Counseling program because of her familiarity with the program directors as well as the program.

“I grew up in the metropolitan Detroit area, and I was committed to staying in this area,” she said.

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.”