Emma Luhmann didn't consider herself a "science person" when she started college. Now she's starting her PhD at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine after discovering a passion for mass spectrometry while working in the UI lab of Lilliana Radoshevich, PhD.

Skylar McCaulley has dreamed of being a physician since he was a child. Several members of his immediate family—his father, one sister, and one brother—live with Type 1 diabetes, and witnessing their health care experiences piqued his interest in medicine. He was building the path to that dream when, on August 13, 2021, everything changed.

Will Sgrignoli turned 30 the same month he started medical school. But that’s not the only thing that makes his path to medicine look a little different from those of his classmates; he is also pivoting from a career as a Navy physical therapist.