Professor’s 20-Year Labor of Love Inspires Medical Professionals of the Future

Srinivas Pentyala surrounded by participants in Stony Brook Medicine's 20th annual Science and Research Awareness Series. Photos by Jeanne Neville.

In July, Stony Brook Medicine's Science and Research Awareness Series(SARAS) celebrated 20 years of bringing high school-age aspiring doctors to Stony Brook for an informative, influential, and many times eye-opening primer into the profession.

"I love doing the SARAS program," said Srinivas Pentyala, professor anddirector of translational researchandSARAS Coordinatorin the Department of Anesthesiologyin the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. "Every year there is something that makes me say 'I can't do this again,' but every year I want to do it again."

The immersive three-week program was founded in 2004 after Pentyala discovered that many soon-to-be college graduates had no real post-graduation plan.

"Students who were set to graduate in a few weeks were saying 'I don't know what to do next,'" said Pentyala. "That made me think that maybe we weren't adequately exposing them to the futures that were within their grasp. We have so many STEM majors, particularly in the biomedical field, and here we had kids who majored in biology, biochemistry, neuroscience, biomedical engineering, microbiology, and more, and they didn't know what path to take."

Srinivas Pentyala

To learn more, Pentyala brought a few of them together in 2004 to talk informally about what their futures might hold, and what jobs existed in biomedical science.

The response was immediately positive, and the SARAS program was born. The first year, 21 students learned what happens in a real-world hospital and lab, with lectures in different areas.

The second year, Pentyala recruited a few colleagues to offer insight into their areas of expertise, and the program expanded to 80 students. The third year, with word-of-mouth being the only outreach, the program attracted 135 attendees, the most the lecture halls and labs could accommodate.

"Now we take reservations on a first come, first served basis," he said. "We don't see transcripts or anything. Whoever comes first can come into the program and it gets closed at 125 students." SARAS currently costs $1,000 for three weeks.

Two decades later, Pentyala's program has had a positive influence on more than 2,000 students, and has resulted in long-term professional relationships.

"All these students want to be in a biomedical area," he said. "Everyone wants to be a physician, but they don't realize how hard that is. The only thing they know is 'doctor.' But a doctor can be many things. The SARAS program exposes them to every area of medicine and biomedical science."

Pentyala said the program forges bonds with the students and inspires them. Some students come to him for advice even after they leave - like Rebecca Monastero, who participated in SARAS both as an attending high school student and as a med student assisting Pentyala in organizing and facilitating workshops.

"As a high school student, SARAS was instrumental in encouraging my passion for the biomedical sciences and allowed me to delve into many different areas of science and medicine to further explore my interests and guide my future career path," said Monastero, a neurology resident in the Renaissance School of Medicine. "As I got deeper into my academic career, it helped me develop teaching and leadership skills. Everything I learned and experienced through SARAS has guided me towards and served me well in my current career."

Joe Bisiani, Physics '24, participated in the SARAS program as a high school junior in 2018 and said the program inspired him to pursue a career in medicine. In his junior year, he reached out to Pentyala to ask if he could be part of his research team, and has been a member the past two years.

"He is one of the most kind, caring, wise, and compassionate mentors I have had in my entire academic career," said Bisiani. "All throughout college he gave me opportunities and outlets to explore my passion for physics and find ways to incorporate it into the medical field."

Pentyala - who won the President's Stony Brook Champion Award at the 2023 Stony Awards - helped Bisiani author a paper, "It's Time to Go Quantum in Medicine," exploring the future of quantum physics in medicine. It was published in 2023 and is PubMed indexed.

"Dr. Pentyala always gave me opportunities to explore my interests, always supported an inclusive working environment, and always created a collaborative team amongst people from varying backgrounds," added Bisiani. "He genuinely cares for all of his students."

In the program, students hear two expert lecturers each day, plus a workshop. "We take them to the lab for hands-on experience, or they might work in groups of four to five," said Pentyala. "For example, one workshop is in physical therapy. The vice chair of the department ran it herself. We brought all the physical therapy equipment into the lecture hall and she conducted exercise workshops. Another day we had a CPR workshop where every kid got a mannequin and learned how to do CPR."

"As a physical therapist clinician and professor, it was invigorating to see the positive interest from the high school students in the SARAS program," said Kyle Hewson, vice chair and
clinical associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy. "They had so many questions about the profession, took notes and fully participated in the lab. They experienced that movement is fun and essential."

Pentyala said that over the years, the thing that has consistently surprised students the most is how many avenues are available within the field. "I tell them not everyone can get into med school. It's not easy. But there are still other opportunities."

Pentyala hopes to find a way to make the program available to even more students.

"We need to change the system so that more funding is there for underprivileged kids," he said. "I get calls from parents saying that if their kid comes to the program for three weeks, it will be a hardship because the kid works and brings income to the family. Fortunately, we have some generous donors that have helped offset this."

Even with the challenges, Pentyala is proud to have created SARAS, and even prouder that he has seen tangible manifestations of the hope and inspiration it offers.

"They come with an open mind and we see the progression," said Pentyala. "They don't know much about anything at first. But by the end of the program, they have so many things to talk about. One day they might want to be an orthopedist, and the next day it might be a neurologist. And that's the reason I love doing this. It's not part of my job and I'm not being paid anything extra. But I love doing it. This is my vacation."

- Robert Emproto

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