Jon Christian Merkel Scholarship Fund

Kavita Bhatnagar

Kavita is from Maryland and earned her bachelor’s degree in public health studies at Johns Hopkins University. After graduation, she pursued her passion for global health, initiating a project on using women’s self-help groups to deliver public health, social, and economic interventions in India. She recently completed a summer internship with the World Health Organization. Kavita is entering her second year of medical school at the University of Maryland and is excited to combine her medical and public health backgrounds to provide better clinical care and develop programs that improve the well-being of communities throughout the world.

Stefano Muscatelli

Stefano graduated summa cum laude with a BA in biology from St. Mary's College of Maryland ,where he also was a varsity baseball player. After spending a year in vaccine research at NIH, he entered medical school at the University of Maryland. He has focused his extracurricular activities on the mentoring the youth of West Baltimore, spending one day each week in his first year teaching science to fourth- and fifth-graders. As a second-year medical student, he developed a mentoring program for third-grade boys at George Washington Elementary school in West Baltimore. Upon graduation from medical school, he hopes to continue to help underserved populations, with a particular focus on men's health.

Lauren Wiese

Born in Kentucky and raised in New Jersey, Lauren studied chemical engineering at Villanova University on a full-tuition scholarship. She then went on to earn her DMD at Rutgers School of Dental Medicine. Orthodontics became her passion because it marries engineering and dentistry with complex treatment plans and creativity. As an orthodontic resident in the School of Dentistry, Wiese has continued her history of community involvement as a mentor for middle school children at a Baltimore City school. When she graduates in 2019, she hopes to exercise her passion for orthodontics and sincere patient interactions by treating those who might not otherwise receive orthodontic care.