Downey teen selected to attend national conference for future medical leaders

DOWNEY – Samantha Perez-Rios, a sophomore honors student at Warren High School, has been selected to serve as a delegate to the Congress of Future Medical Leaders to be held June 26-28 at the University of Massachusetts Lowell campus, just outside Boston.

While there, she will be presented with the Award of Excellence.

The Congress is an honors-only program for high school students who want to become physicians or go into medical research fields.

The purpose of the event is to honor, inspire, motivate and direct the top students in the country interested in these careers, and to provide a path, plan and resources to help them reach their goal.

Samantha’s nomination was signed by Dr. Mario Capecchi, winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and the science director of the National Academy of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists.

During the three-day Congress, Samantha will join students from across the country and hear Nobel Laureates and National Medal of Science recipients discuss leading medical research; be given advice from Ivy League and top medical school deans on what to expect in medical school; witness stories told by patients who are living medical miracles; be inspired by fellow teen medical science prodigies; and learn about cutting-edge advances and the future in medicine and medical technology.

“My interest in medicine started at a young age when I used to watch the Discovery Channel,” said Samantha, who is enrolled in Warren High’s honors biomedical program. “I enjoyed watching videos about surgeries such as C-sections. One of my favorite medical shows to watch currently is “Dr. Pimple Popper”; I find the surgical procedures fascinating.”

In addition to her educational achievements, Samantha is also an athlete, competing on Warren High’s dance, cross country and track and field tems. She travleed to Hawaii with Warren’s dance team to compete in a national dance competition; the team won first place in four categories and was honored with the Mayor’s Excellence Award.

Samantha and her running team also traveled to Tennessee, taking first place in the junior varsity division, in addition to a fifth place finish in Seattle.