Rebecca Cloninger felt Brody mission was perfect match

Rebecca Cloninger said she could not pass up the opportunity to join the Brody School of Medicine family. The school’s mission to improve the health and well-being of the region and emphasis on community engagement align with her personal goals.

“It is my goal to lay my hands on the community I am involved in and Brody has offered me that opportunity to do just that,” she said.

The daughter of Teresa and Brian Cloninger from Gastonia, Cloninger earned a Bachelor of Science in biology with minors in chemistry and neuroscience from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Cloninger is one of three Brody Scholars in the 2028 medical school class. The prestigious scholarship, valued at approximately $118,000, provides

Rebecca Cloninger has completed her first year as a Brody Scholar in the Brody School of Medicine. (ECU Photo by Steven Mantilla)

each scholar four years of medical school tuition, living expenses and the opportunity to design a summer enrichment program that can include travel abroad. The award will also support community service projects the students may undertake while in medical school.

“Being a Brody Scholar is an incredible honor. It represents more than just academic achievement. (To me) it represents the mission of Brody: to serve, lead and improve the health care of underserved areas in North Carolina and throughout the world,” Cloninger said. “I am committed to not only practice medicine, but to show compassion and lead with integrity.”

Community outreach and support for people in need is true to who Cloninger is and how she hopes to serve as a physician — to care for those around her in a unique way.

“It is my aim to be a physician that works as the hands and feet of Jesus, not only as a healer, but as a physician that cares for my patients spiritually, physically and emotionally,” Cloninger said. “Meeting patients exactly where they are is one of the most important aspects of how I can care for them and how I choose to love others around me.”

As an undergraduate, Cloninger was involved in ministry and service at a community center where she focused on closing education gaps for children through after-school tutoring programs. During a gap year, she worked as a medical assistant for NeighborHealth Center, a federally-qualified health care center in Raleigh.

“I served patients from all different backgrounds, languages and from more than 80 countries,” she said. “I worked as a mammogram coordinator for uninsured women at this clinic by working with a local hospital that ran a mammography bus that could come directly to the clinic and offer access to mammography screening.”

Cloninger plans to work in primary care. Currently, her interest lies in becoming an OB-GYN physician. She hopes to remain in North Carolina and to practice in rural settings, specifically underserved rural areas in the state.

“Women’s health is something I am passionate about pursuing on all fronts,” she said. “It is my goal to be a trauma-informed provider who understands how trauma may impact the care of patients and how patient care can be centered on the individual needs of each patient.”

The Brody Scholars program has allowed Cloninger an opportunity to know physicians and faculty in the medical school and experience their genuine care for her success.

“Starting medical school was an intense change that required a lot of adjustment, but I could not have done it without the wisdom and support offered to me through the Brody Scholars (program),” she said. “This program has affirmed over and over my sense of purpose for pursuing medicine and has given me the opportunity of a lifetime with its resources and broad support system of faculty, doctors, and colleagues alike. My life has been forever changed.”

Immersive Learning

Through the Brody Scholars program, Cloninger and her peers have been given opportunities to apply their growing medical knowledge in real-world experiences. The first-year students joined other Brody Scholars at a health fair where they educated community residents about the importance of cardiac health and risk factors for disease.

Her first year has been immersive and Cloninger has discovered a growing interest in anatomy and studying the complexities of the human form.

“What I enjoyed the most about my first year as a medical student is the amount of learning I have had the opportunity to do in so many different areas,” she said. “I believe that the cadaver lab within our anatomy course has been my favorite, as we had the opportunity to work with someone who lovingly donated their physical body to enhance my learning.”

Cloninger said she has appreciated the support of fellow Brody students and the bonds formed within her cohort help make medical school manageable.

“Friendships develop quickly in a stressful environment such as medical school,” she said. “I have learned new depths of friendship, new depths of medical knowledge, and more about myself than I ever could have imagined.”

Cloninger has learned that being a medical student is as emotionally challenging as it is academically. She has witnessed growth that comes from those challenges through collaboration with her Brody peers and faculty.

“You will be overwhelmed, yes. You will have some of the toughest weeks imaginable,” she said. “If you love medicine and caring for those around you, you can and will do it. There will be people along the way who will support you, know you, and love you.”