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Ten College of Medicine students compete in national AMA Research Challenge

Faculty, staff, trainees and students encouraged to join virtual event to support COM competitors

Ten Penn State College of Medicine students have been selected to compete in the 2025 American Medical Association (AMA) Research Challenge, the largest national, multi-specialty medical research conference for medical students, residents and international medical graduates.

More than 1,400 abstracts were submitted to the 2025 AMA Research Challenge across six topic areas, with 1,000 advancing to the virtual symposium and just 60 moving on to the semifinals round.

The following students earned qualifying scores to participate in this year’s virtual poster symposium and semifinals on Wednesday, Oct. 22 and Thursday, Oct. 23:

  • Congzhou Sha
  • Hayes Stancliff
  • Junho Song
  • Jordan Willis
  • Claire Miller
  • Madison Crago and McKayla Vliem
  • Caroline Soderman
  • Parthay Patel
  • Paige Richards
  • Zainab Bhatti

At the conclusion of the event, the top five semifinalists will advance to the finals, where they will present their work to a panel of judges and compete for a $10,000 grand prize.

College of Medicine faculty, staff, trainees and students are invited to attend the virtual event to support the College of Medicine’s competitors and explore research from across the country. AMA members will also have the opportunity to score posters in the semifinals to help determine the top finalists.

To register and learn more, visit the AMA Research Challenge website. Attendees can log in any time during the two-day event to view posters and presentations, connect with participants and provide feedback to help advance medical research nationwide.

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