Senior Success: Sravya Vegunta Is Going to Medical School
“It’s a little bittersweet to have to leave without being able to say proper goodbyes to everyone,” lamented Sravya Vegunta, a senior Albert Dorman Honors College (ADHC) scholar, about graduating from NJIT during the coronavirus pandemic.
“But I’m definitely glad to be moving on to that next stage, because it’s something that I’ve been looking forward to for so long,” she added, speaking from her Monroe Township home where she is staying inside with her parents and younger brother.
Vegunta is a biology major and headed this fall to New Jersey Medical School, as part of ADHC’s seven-year, accelerated B.S./M.D. program. She is excited to rotate through the various medical specialties, which she said should help her decide on a clinical discipline to pursue. What she is certain about is that she aspires to deliver direct patient care, conduct clinical research and, down the road, engage with Doctors Without Borders and the World Health Organization.
An exceedingly curious child and voracious reader — “my parents had to cap the number of library books I would check out, because otherwise I’d be spending too much of my time reading” — Vegunta developed her interest in science and medicine before she turned 10. Having struggled with a stomach ailment as a little girl, she was treated by many health care practitioners and in and out of hospitals. The experience proved impactful and enlightening.
“That made a really, really big impression on me,” she remembered. “I understood that these doctors were trying to help me feel better and trying to figure out what was causing all the pain.”
When it came time to apply to college, she knew she wanted an accelerated pre-health program. A visit to NJIT, during which she talked to both students and advisers, convinced her the university was the right school for her.
“It just really came across to me how tight-knit the student community here is, and especially in the accelerated program how supportive the advisers were,” shared Vegunta. “I’ve also really been interested in research, and I had a strong feeling that I would get to really explore that interest at NJIT.”
That’s exactly what she did. In her first two years, she assisted Distinguished Professor Namas Chandra and Post-Doctoral Research Associate Madhuvika Murugan in NJIT’s Center for Injury Biomechanics, Materials, and Medicine (CIBM3), in characterizing the changes in microglial cells and monocyte infiltration after blast-induced traumatic brain injury. She won a silver medal for her work at the university’s 2019 Dana Knox Showcase, which recognizes undergraduate and graduate researchers. Nowadays, Vegunta is working with Murugan at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School on an independent research project centered on post-traumatic epilepsy and the enzyme adenosine kinase to satisfy her capstone requirement; Detlev Boison is the principal investigator and Vegunta’s adviser there.
Of the CIBM3 opportunity, she remarked, “I was learning from day one. I was doing hands-on experimentation and analyzing data independently. I had the opportunity to publish my work as well as present it multiple times. The experience definitely exceeded what I thought I would be able to achieve as an undergrad “
This past fall, Vegunta took a semester-long break from her pre-health courses to study the Spanish history, culture and language at the University of Nebrija in Madrid, Spain. She said the experience fulfilled her personally and will also help her professionally now that she is at an intermediate level of fluency.
“Newark has a huge Spanish-speaking population, so as a medical student, or as a doctor in the future, that’s just that many more people that I can reach out to.”
Moving ahead, she also intends to connect with incoming ADHC students, as a mentor through her continuing role as an Honors Ambassador. It is a job that, along with her sorority, has made her many friends at NJIT to say goodbye to.
