Early Clinical Exposure Prepared Burnett School of Medicine Students for Top Residency Placements

FORT WORTH – The class of 2026 at the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University has officially joined the ranks of the nation’s newest physicians, matching into highly regarded health systems from coast to coast.

CLASS OF 2026 CONVOCATION

This latest cohort of Empathetic Scholars® followed a vast range of paths, from the track to the engineering lab, to reach this moment of professional transition. Here are some of their stories:

Isabella Aguiar, M.D. ’26

Hometown: San Diego, CA

Program: University of Arizona (Tucson)

Specialty: Internal Medicine

For Isabella Aguiar, M.D. ’26, the road to medicine was paved with both the quiet observations of a daughter and the cadenced stride of a distance runner.

Raised in San Diego after her family emigrated from Brazil, Dr. Aguiar’s first exposure to health care was defined by what was missing, a shared language. Watching her parents navigate doctor visits through a language barrier planted a seed of intentionality in her mind.

“It’s much harder to build a relationship when you can’t speak the same language,” Dr. Aguiar said. “Even with translators something is often lost. I’ve always kept that in mind.”

While that seed was planted early, it was athletics that first brought her to Fort Worth. A D-1 cross-country runner, Dr. Aguiar chose TCU for its community feel and a smaller environment where she could find her pace on the track and in the classroom.

Her clarity of her “calling” to pursue medicine came during a shadow day with a family medicine physician. Watching the doctor move between patients with a consistent, compassionate heart – whether she had known them for years or mere minutes – gave Dr. Aguiar a glimpse into her future.

“I fell in love with those relationships,” she said. “I realized I wanted to be that bridge for my own patients.”

As she transitioned from the track to the Burnett School of Medicine, the traits that made her a successful athlete –  discipline, teamwork, and sheer endurance –  became her greatest assets. In the school’s Empathetic Scholar® curriculum, she found a way to apply her competitive spirit to a new mission.

“In medicine, you’re working with so many different people across different aspects of care,” Dr. Aguiar said. “I love being able to continue that teamwork in a way that truly matters.”

Dr. Aguiar matched in Internal Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She enters residency with a clear goal, reducing the very barriers her parents once faced and centering every patient-provider relationship on clear communication.

“The curriculum at TCU focuses so heavily on communication,” she said. “That was exactly what I needed to become – the physician I always imagined I could be.”

Oluwatoyin Duyile, M.D. ’26

Hometown: Nigeria

Program: Case Western Reserve University – MetroHealth

Specialty: Internal Medicine

For Oluwatoyin Duyile, M.D. ’26, the spark that ignited a career in medicine was as simple as it was profound. It began in a small clinic in Nigeria, where she accompanied her father to a routine checkup.

“After witnessing the interaction between my father and his physician, I just announced to the clinic that I wanted to be a doctor,” Dr. Duyile recalled. “Nothing else has ever come close to that feeling.”

That childhood declaration evolved into a focused drive to serve the underserved. After arriving at the University of Tennessee for her undergraduate studies, she began to see the startling parallels between the health care gaps in Nigeria and those in the United States.

“It’s almost the same in the sense that those with access and wealth receive better care than those on the other side of the class divide,” she said. “But I’ve learned that in the U.S., it’s even more nuanced. Here, there is a racial divide layered on top of that class divide.”

Seeking a medical education that prioritized these human complexities, she chose the Burnett School of Medicine. The school’s Empathetic Scholar® curriculum, which places students in clinical settings from day one, offered the exact “added value” she sought for her training.

“This career requires you to be a lifelong learner,” Dr. Duyile said. “The humility I brought into medical school has been tested through the fire. I know it will sustain me through my residency and into my practice.”

Dr. Duyile matched in Internal Medicine at Case Western Reserve University’s MetroHealth in Cleveland, Ohio, a program renowned for serving a diverse population across cultural and socioeconomic spectrums.

“It’s vital for people like us to enter medicine because we are beneath that class divide here and abroad,” Dr. Duyile said. “Just being able to impact those lives, oh my goodness, it is something that I will forever see as a privilege.”

Maha Khan, M.D. ’26

Hometown: Ann Arbor, MI

Program: Rush University Medical Center (Chicago)

Specialty: General Surgery

Many consider a career in medicine a calling — a lifelong commitment to empathy, service, and leadership. For Maha Khan, M.D. ’26, that call didn’t come as a shout, but as a persistent pull toward the human side of healing.

Dr. Khan came from a lineage of engineers. She initially honored that family legacy, earning her degree in biomedical engineering with a very personal mission in mind.

“I had a skiing accident when I was 10 years old. I severed two of my fingers and I needed reconstructive surgery,” Dr. Khan recalled. “I decided to pursue biomedical engineering because I wanted to build prosthetics for patients like me.”

As an engineer, she spent her days in labs and hospitals, ensuring the machines worked perfectly. But as she repaired equipment and helped patients regain mobility, she found herself looking past the mechanics. She noticed the profound, quiet relationships physicians built with their patients — a level of connection her technical role couldn’t provide.

“I just felt this longing in my soul, like, ‘Wow, I want to be them,’ ” Dr. Khan said. “It was an accumulation of thoughts, but eventually, I realized I had a deeper purpose beyond the engineering.”

That pursuit of purpose led her to the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU. The school’s Empathetic Scholar® model and the unique Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) curriculum, which puts students in clinical settings for all four years, offered the exact human-centered training she craved.

“I’ve had the privilege of working with doctors for years on end here,” Dr. Khan said. “I was able to build such a collegial relationship with my preceptors. Now, they treat me as a peer, even though I’m just starting my journey.”

Now, as she prepares for her residency in General Surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Dr. Khan reflects on the career pivot that brought her to this moment with a smile.

“You don’t always know what’s in store,” she said. “But you have to trust that it’s going to be new, exciting, and exactly where you’re meant to be.”

Kailie McGee, M.D. ’26

Hometown: Dallas, TX

Program: Baylor University Medical Center (Dallas)

Specialty: Internal Medicine

For Kailie McGee, M.D. ’26, the call to medicine began with her birth and death.

On March 8, 2000, at Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC) in Dallas, the air went still. Dr. McGee was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, requiring the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to step in immediately.

“They had to bring me back to life,” Dr. McGee said.

As the medical team worked to save Kailie, her mother, Melissa, was fighting her own crisis. She had suffered a Severe Obstetric Complication (SOC) and was losing blood at a life-threatening rate. The team activated a massive transfusion protocol, replacing nearly all the blood in her body to keep her there with her newborn daughter.

Kailie and her mother speak often of that day. While there were signs of her mom’s health declining leading up to the delivery, they both view their survival as a medical miracle and a profound lesson in resilience.

“My mom says it feels full circle now that I’m going to be a resident,” Dr. McGee said. “She sees both of us being alive as a miracle and it’s shifted her perspective on everything.”

Twenty-six years later, as she prepared to graduate from the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU, BUMC was the only place she wanted to be.

It wasn’t just the miracle of her birth that pulled her back it was a lifetime of care for her family. From her grandfather being cured of stomach cancer at BUMC to her grandmother receiving life-saving care after a recent stroke, the hospital has been the backdrop of her family’s most resilient moments.

“During my interview day, something just clicked,” Dr. McGee said. “I felt a deep spiritual need to give back to the specific community that has given so much to my family.”

Dr. McGee matched in Internal Medicine at BUMC. Her journey back to the hospital where she was born is especially emotional given their work alongside the medical school’s North Texas Maternal Health Accelerator (MHA) initiative. The MHA is focusing on reducing the very complications her mother survived. Dr. McGee is entering a field that directly protects the future of families like her own.

“Because of programs like MHA, we’re going to save moms and babies just like us,” Dr. McGee said. “This is the most beautiful full-circle moment I could imagine.”

Kyung Park, M.D. ’26

Hometown: Dallas, TX

Program: Yale – New Haven Hospital (Connecticut)

Specialty: Orthopedic Surgery

In third grade, Kyung Park, M.D. ’26, was too young to comprehend what happened to his grandfather, the man who raised him, after he suffered a heart attack.

“I felt so helpless,” Dr. Park recalled. His grandfather passed away 10 years later due to cardiac health issues.

“I often say I wanted to go into medicine from a young age, but it was my grandpa who truly inspired the ‘why’ behind it.”

Raised in Dallas, Dr. Park initially pursued biology at Washington University in St. Louis. He returned home to work as a medical scribe at Children’s Health Medical Center, a role that allowed him to witness the complexities of various specialties before making a lifelong commitment to the path of healing others.

It was there that the call toward pediatric orthopedics began to resonate. He deepened his focus at a private practice in Southlake, specializing in the field. When it came time to choose a medical school, the Empathetic Scholar® mission of the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU was the only one that struck the right chord.

“I always tell people I feel like the Burnett School of Medicine found me,” Dr. Park said. “I had never spoken to a school with such a clear mission and vision. Everything just clicked. It felt like finding the perfect love.”

The school’s focus on compassionate communication, coupled with a faculty that went above and beyond even joining Zoom calls after hours to ensure he felt supported guided him toward a prestigious residency in Orthopedic Surgery at Yale–New Haven Hospital in Connecticut.

Beyond the technical skills, Dr. Park credits the school’s unique patient framing sessions, where patients share their lived experiences to provide context for medical content, with grounding his approach to patient care.

“TCU taught me to be an advocate especially for younger patients facing trauma,” Dr. Park said. “The curriculum showed me how to explain the science in detail while remaining fully present in the human moment. That is a lesson that will stay with me forever.”