The Division of Plastic Surgery celebrates its eighth year of Stueber Scholars, a philanthropy endeavor to widen access and diversity in plastic surgery.
Every summer, the University of Maryland School of Medicine's (UMSOM) Division of Plastic Surgery runs a 10-week scholarship program created through the generous donations of esteemed alumni surgeon Dr. Kristin Stueber. She aimed to foster a budding interest in clinical research for UMSOM students. The scholarship allows students from underrepresented backgrounds to develop practical skills within research, while building their CV for the competitive field of plastic surgery.
Most surgical specialties face concerns with the lack of diversity within the practicing population. Many suggest this is due to a smaller number of strong applications made by minority medical students, which may be due to lack of early exposure or lack of opportunities to strengthen their applications as compared to their peers. The Stueber Scholarship, with senior mentorship by Dr. Sheri Slezak and Dr. Yvonne Rasko, aims to address these concerns and promote diversity within the surgical fields. It does so by creating research opportunities for all students and producing tangible outcomes for the scholars’ future specialty applications. These include written publications and both poster and oral conference presentations.
This year, the division celebrates four students being selected for the summer scholarship, with each being awarded $1,500:
- Nicholas Hricz
- Kevin Zhu
- Beita Badiei
- Chinenye Onyima
Despite the difficulties faced this year in gaining hands-on hospital or research experience due to COVID-19, these scholars were able to achieve an outstanding amount of success. Between them, they produced three publications already in print, with a further 10 in writing, six with one of the scholars as the first author. Their work has also been recognized both regionally and nationally, and their research has led to seven accepted abstracts at conferences across the country. Congratulations to our Stueber Scholars!
The Stueber Scholarship is a selective application, open to high-achieving first-year UMSOM students to be completed the summer between their first and second year. Applications will be open this November for the 2022 cycle. Any student interested in applying for next year is welcome to contact the scholarship director, Dr. Michael Ha (mha@som.umaryland.edu), for further details.