For Chetana Suvarna, a member of the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (GW SMHS) MD program class of 2028, the path to medical school began not in a clinic, but in a biomedical laboratory. Years before she ever put on a white coat, Suvarna was learning how to diagnose patients using lab data, debate differential diagnoses with a team, and present cases as though she were on rounds thanks to the GW SMHS Biomedical Laboratory Sciences Summer Immersion Program. The experience offered her first-hand exposure to diagnostic testing, solidifying her interest in medicine, and setting her on a trajectory that ultimately led her back to GW as a medical student.
Suvarna participated in the program in 2018, between her junior and senior years of high school. At the time, she was still exploring potential career paths. Growing up in Northern Virginia with parents who had engineering backgrounds, she initially gravitated toward biomedical engineering. She had even spent a summer at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, following year-long NASA virtual course during the school year. Rather than building a foundation for engineering studies, as she expected, Suvarna found herself drawn to the work the physicians were doing to prepare astronauts for space, sparking an early interest in medicine.
That experience left her eager for a more hands-on way to explore the medical field — one that went beyond observation. GW’s Biomedical Laboratory Sciences Summer Immersion Program offered exactly that opportunity, allowing her to learn how physicians use laboratory data to make clinical decisions.
“The program allowed me to get involved in the medical field in a different context as a high schooler,” she recalled. “I saw specifically how through this program I was able to learn a little about the different lab results that doctors use and work with other students to come up with diagnoses and use that in real-life scenarios.”
Suvarna added that the program helped her understand why doctors order certain tests and how diagnoses are formed; an insight that ultimately captured her interest in pursuing medicine.
A defining feature for Suvarna was the interactive structure. Each day combined lectures with applied lab activities and conversations with professionals across the health care field, including MDs, biomedical scientists, and student volunteers from diverse backgrounds such as lab science and medicine.
“I really liked that there was a lot of interaction,” Suvarna said.
Hands-on sessions, led by biomedical laboratory scientists, included determining blood type, interpreting urinalysis results, and reviewing CDC data. Rather than sitting through lectures, students experienced what it was like to function as part of a health care team, connecting laboratory findings directly to patient care.
What stood out most was the program’s emphasis on critical thinking and teamwork. For the final project, students were given a simulated patient chart and asked to present a case as if they were on hospital rounds. Suvarna’s team worked through an infectious disease case involving a patient returning from Africa with symptoms consistent with malaria, influenza, or West Nile virus. They analyzed abnormal test results, discussed disease etiology, recommended diagnostic tests, and proposed treatment options.
“That really caught my interest,” Suvarna said. “I always wanted to be in a field where I was working on a team to solve a problem.”
After high school, Suvarna attended Virginia Tech, where she continued building on the foundation she gained through the immersion program. She worked as an EMT in Christiansburg, Virginia, gaining firsthand exposure to patient care, and pursued neuroscience research that required analyzing and presenting scientific data.
“Many of the concepts I learned through the Summer Immersion Program were things that I had to reuse again,” she said. “It was super helpful to learn how to interpret data and consolidate that into presentations.”
Today, as a second-year medical student at GW, Suvarna sees how closely that early experience mirrors her current training. She recalls finding her Biomedical Laboratory Sciences Summer Immersion Program T-shirt while home one summer and feeling the experience come full circle.
“This was such a pivotal program for my development,” she said.
While she is still exploring specialties, Suvarna knows she wants to incorporate research into her future clinical career — an ambition rooted in a summer that helped her understand medicine both behind the scenes and at the bedside.
