C4KC Scholars
Climb 4 Kidney Cancer (C4KC) Scholars are students in medicine, computers, data science and biomedical sciences that we support with scholarships as they participate in kidney cancer research during a summer break.
Click here to learn more about applying to be the next C4KC Scholar
Below is a list of just some of the C4KC Scholars we have supported over the years. These bios were written at the time they received the award, many have gone onto medical school or residency and are making a difference around the world.
Devante Delbrune
Devante is a member of the University of Minnesota Medical School class of 2024. He was born and raised in Moorhead Minnesota. He became interested in medicine after becoming involved as a Certified Nursing Assistant in college. He has an identical twin who is also in medical school with him at the University of Minnesota. He played football most of his life and continued into college at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He particularly became interested in urology as his father has renal failure and his grandfather had prostate cancer so he developed a special interest in treatment of the kidney and prostate. He is looking forward to continuing kidney cancer research and is thankful to have this opportunity.
Brett Norling
Brett grew up west of Minneapolis, MN and completed his undergraduate degree at Bethel University in biochemistry. He conducted research on heart valve biomaterials and worked as a medical scribe in the Emergency Department during college, both of which confirmed his suspicion that the medical field is for him. That suspicion began as a high schooler after shadowing the orthopedic surgeon who repaired his thumb following a football injury. He took interest in urology after learning about the intricacies of its surgical practice, as well as how meaningful it can be to work with older men and women to help restore quality of life through the various approaches within the field of urology. He spends most of his free time with his wife and family, serving at church, and out on the lake. Wakesurfing is a passion of his, but he surfed in the ocean for the first time this past year and realized he was a surf bum in another life.
Niklas Damberg
Niklas grew up just north of Minneapolis and subsequently attended the University of Minnesota where he majored in biology and minored in chemistry and nutrition. In college, he competed on the alpine ski and lacrosse teams, worked in a group home setting with teenage residents having mental and physical disabilities, and researched pancreatic beta-cell dysfunction. This prior research heavily utilized imaging to assess beta-cell health and function. Since, the potential that diagnostic imaging has in disease etiology, progression, and treatment has been a particular interest for Niklas and a key reason he wanted to learn more about AI/machine learning in the context of kidney cancer. Outside of medical school, you can generally find Niklas outside running, biking, skiing, and exploring.
Alexandra Austin
Alexandra grew up in the Twin Cities and initially became interested in medicine because of her parents, who are radiologists. In college, she discovered her enthusiasm for clinical research. As a medical student at the University of Minnesota, she is excited to continue pursuing my passion for medical research in Dr. Christopher Weight's research lab, using artificial intelligence to identify and classify kidney cancer on CT scans. As her parents are radiologists, she understands the impact this work could have and am thrilled to be working towards that with Dr. Weight, the other kidney cancer scholars, and the many teams involved across the country. She enjoys spending time with her family, hiking, and playing music in her free time.
Jamee Schoephoerster
Jamee grew up in Mound, MN attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, majoring in Biology and Environmental Sciences with a Mathematics minor. She spent her gap year conducting cardiovascular research and providing counseling services through the Rape Crisis Center in Dane county. She enjoys spending time outside and hopes to sleep many nights under the stars this summer. Her pediatrician was one of the sources of her encouragement and interest in medicine growing up. Her interest in nephrology was sparked by shadowing a pediatric nephrologist at UW-Madison, where she witnessed how intricate the kidneys are in other body systems’ physiology. She hopes to give physicians and patients more insight into their disease and options by conducting research with Dr. Weight.
Bailey Abernathy
Bailey was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. Her parents found her standing on her head watching television and took that as a sign to put her in gymnastics. She fell in love with the sport and never looked back. In fact, gymnastics is what brought her to the University of Minnesota as a member of the Division I women's gymnastics team - Go Gophers! Bailey majored in physiology and minored in Spanish studies as in undergrad and, since then, has worked in healthcare as an EMT, scribe, and medical assistant before medical school. Her athletic background is a large reason she is interested in medicine due to witnessing the incredible capabilities of the body in sports, including the ability to heal after an injury. Her interest in kidney cancer specifically stems from her father, a practicing urologist in Colorado. Bailey grew up hearing about kidneys and wants to learn more about what her dad does in his practice.
Justice Spriggs
Justice is a medical student at the University of Minnesota in the class of 2023. Originally born in Fargo, ND, he has lived in Minnesota since he was two years old. He graduated from St. Anthony Village High School in 2015 and from Hamline University in 2019 with a BS in Biochemistry. During undergrad, he played four years of football as a quarterback for Hamline, and is a huge Vikings and Twins fan. He is interested in cancer research since two of his grandparents had difficult battles with the disease.
David Wu
David is from Cupertino, CA. His father is an acupuncturist, so he was very interested in the different medicine humans use to treat disease. He thinks the kidney is a beautiful organ as it is an organ of balance and filtration. He’s excited to research it this summer and learn more about machine learning/AI!
Benjamin Simpson
Ben is a native of the Twin-Cities, growing up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Before starting medical school at the University of Minnesota, Ben studied biochemistry at Macalester College just down the road in St. Paul. Outside of studying, he likes to play soccer and basketball with friends and take his dog Winston to the dog park. He became interested in medicine while working at Hennepin County Medical Center after graduating college, finding that medicine is a unique field where you can make a tangible difference and have an ever-changing career. Ben is interested in studying kidney cancer because the field is utilizing cutting edge technology to combat a problem that is becoming more prevalent in the U.S. Ben will be joining the team of C4KC scholars in the summer of 2020. He will import CT scans of abdominal kidney cancer and cysts to train an artificial intelligence program to better detect and diagnose kidney cancer. He is excited to see how machine learning can be applied to kidney cancer to better patient outcomes.
Sierra Virnig
Sierra has a BA from The College of Saint Benedict, where she studied Biology. She grew up in Little Falls, MN, but currently works as a Nursing Assistant at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. She values overall health and well-being and strives to live a healthy lifestyle – one such way she accomplishes that goal is by doing CrossFit. She loves to read, be outdoors, and play with her 6-month-old Goldendoodle in her spare time.
John French
John was born in Pasadena, California, but grew up in Idaho, just outside Boise. He attended college at The College of Idaho, where he played soccer for their men’s soccer program. Through his studies, he earned a triple major and triple minor in the fields of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics/Physics, and Business, History, and Religion, respectively. Between graduation and attending medical school at the University of Missouri, he worked as a CNA, chemistry instructor, research scientist, and hemodialysis technician. His passion for learning about the kidney came from his time as a hemodialysis technician for Fresenius. Seeing patients who suffered from kidney cancer inspired him to want to help investigate better ways to identify and treat kidney cancer. He feels excited and fortunate to work with Dr. Christopher Weight’s group at the University of Minnesota. They use artificial intelligence and deep learning to automatically identify kidney and kidney cancers. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, exercising, and getting outdoors, especially going hiking in the mountains.
Safa Abdulkadir
Safa’s family is originally from East Africa, but she grew up in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Upon graduating high school, she was diagnosed with a neuromuscular disease which inspired her interest in medicine and research. From there, she pursued a degree in physiology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and went on to attend medical school at the same institution. She enjoys reading, running, and visiting art museums in my spare time. She has always been interested in leveraging technology to deliver more precise and impactful healthcare. She immediately knew she wanted to join this kidney cancer research project because it was the perfect intersection of clinical medicine, computer science, and mathematics.
Griffin Struyk
When he’s not studying for med school exams, Griffin spends his time skiing, sailing, or fishing. Originally from Minnetonka, Minnesota, Griffin attended college at the University of Connecticut, where he raced on the alpine ski team. He developed an interest in medicine while volunteering as a research assistant at a local emergency room in college. During this time, he learned to appreciate research's important role in transforming medical care. Before coming to the U of M for medical school, he spent two years at Yale School of Medicine working in clinical research on heart-kidney interactions and therapies for heart failure. Much of his work was focused on kidney physiology, which is how he developed an interest in diseases of the kidney, such as cancer. As a medical student, Griffin was inspired by the work of experts like Dr. Weight, who are using cutting-edge technology to combat kidney cancer. Using artificial intelligence to help understand and treat kidney cancer is an amazing example of medicine as both an art and a science. He is thrilled to join a great team of researchers with the opportunity to create a real difference in patient outcomes.
Sarah Peterson
Sarah enjoys hiking, baking, and making music in her free time. She became interested in medicine after taking a Human Medicine course in high school and discovering her fascination with the human body. Kidney cancer specifically interests her because of its increasing prevalence in the United States and the ever-growing pool of research about treatment options. C4KC funding made her research possible. Without it, she would have been unable to devote much time to this work. She is excited about this research because it will make kidney cancer diagnosis faster and more efficient in the future. This will hopefully lead to patients easily understanding their condition and treatment methods, making the treatment and recovery process less stressful.
Keenan Moore
Keenan was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. He is currently in the application process for medical school after completing his undergraduate degree in biology from Carleton College in Northfield, MN. Keenan was a student-athlete at Carleton, competing on the baseball and football teams. Now that his collegiate career is over, he likes to keep active by playing golf and hiking through the woods to find his erratic tee shots. He was first exposed to the medical field through his mother, who is a practicing podiatrist in the Twin Cities area. His interest continued to grow through his experiences with physicians, and he hopes someday to change his patients’ lives similarly. During his time at Carleton, he spent a semester studying medical practice and policy in Copenhagen, Denmark. Keenan embraces research to make advancements that allow more possibilities to improve patients’ health. Having enjoyed previous research experiences at C4KC through the University of Minnesota and the Cardiac Regeneration Program at Mayo Clinic, Keenan looks forward to pursuing this passion during his gap year before medical school. Keenan was involved with kidney cancer research in 2018 and 2019 and returned to the team in 2020 following his graduation from Carleton. As a C4KC Scholar, he manually segments CT scans for healthy and potentially cancerous kidney tissue. This is part of a process that allows a computer to be able to classify these tissues independently. He also conducts medical chart reviews for these patients, tracking their cancer journey and identifying possible underlying risk factors. Thank you for all your donations funding this life-changing work! Your contributions have supported a team that is making massive strides toward making kidney cancer diagnosis and treatment more accessible and reliable.
Ben Buyn
Ben is a 1st-year med student at UMN. He went to Carleton College as an undergrad and majored in Chemistry. At one point, he considered doubling into Computer Science, but still valued the little sleep I could get, so he passed on that and just did half the major. He’s excited to work on an AI project in kidney cancer with Dr. Weight because it’s his opportunity to reuse some of that CS knowledge. For hobbies, he has been climbing hard for the past year, playing the cello, and doing a lot of martial arts and flip stuff.
Zach Edgerton
Zach is a PGY-1 Urology resident at West Virginia University. He grew up in Hermantown, MN, just outside of Duluth. He has two siblings, an older sister who is a doctor and a younger brother who is going into law. He enjoys playing hockey, golfing, reading, camping, hiking, and hopelessly cheering for the Vikings. He became interested in medicine while volunteering in a hospital while in college in Chicago. While in his gap year, he began working with a urologist in Duluth who inspired his interest in the kidney and its surgical treatments. The urologist helped show him the growing need for research into the often forgotten, growing issue of kidney cancer, and that interest has stuck with him. He cannot express enough how much your donations have meant to his program and to the field of medicine in general. Thanks to your generosity, he is helping to develop software that can improve patient outcomes and extend life expectancy for countless people in the future.
Ranveer Vasdev
Ranveer is a PGY-1 Urology Resident at Mayo Clinic Rochester. His family is originally from East Africa, India, and England, but he was born and raised in Rochester, MN. Before coming to the U for Medical School, he studied Music Performance and Neurobiology at UW Madison. In his spare time, he plays and teaches music, lifts weights, and plays with his two Shih Tzus! He wanted to become a professional bassoonist in high school and perform in an orchestra, but after playing music for patients during his freshman year of undergrad, he became very interested in medicine and biomedical research. He’s specifically interested in studying kidney cancer because it's the perfect blend of purpose-driven clinical research, cutting-edge technology, and community engagement through the Climb 4 Kidney Cancer organization! His fundamental goal is to use machine learning to better diagnose kidney cancer. For the average patient, this means a more accurate and, potentially, earlier diagnosis and prognosis. This information can better guide treatment and potentially improve the quality of life for patients with kidney cancer.
Sean McSweeney
Sean is a PGY-1 Urology Resident at Cleveland Clinic, OH. He grew up in Burnsville, MN, and attended UW-Madison for undergrad. In his free time, he likes to spend time with his friends and family, stay active by going to the gym, watch sports, and read. He and his friends were on a hot streak of trivia wins this summer, so he'd like to continue that going into the fall. He loves the continuous learning that you get from medicine, especially how we are constantly improving our techniques and practices while using cutting-edge technology to help improve patients' health and lives. Kidney cancer is becoming more common, especially in younger adults. He likes the challenge of finding new approaches and therapies to treat kidney cancer while addressing modifiable risk factors causing increased kidney cancer cases. He is very greatful for those who are donating to such a wonderful cause and making the fascinating research he’s involved in possible!
Christian Hannah
Christian graduated from Creighton University with a bachelor's degree in both Chemistry and Spanish and Hispanic Studies. He wasn’t always set on attending medical school; two impactful experiences guided him toward medicine. The first was having to experience his father going through and eventually passing away from cancer. He had brain cancer, which caused him to suffer from seizures. He had to undergo surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation which all took a toll on his body. Although it was a scary and anxious time for Christian, he always felt at peace whenever he was in the hospital. It showed him that hospitals, and healthcare in general, can be beacons of hope and comfort for people. The relief that the patients felt, coupled with the attentive care provided by the physicians, showed him how, as a doctor, he could invest my time in patients and make a profound difference in their lives.
Joel Rosenberg
Joel is a PGY-2 Urology Resident at UC San Diego. As a scholar, he helped construct a kidney cancer imaging database which he used to find new ways to predict the ideal surgical approach, tumor complexity, and ideal management strategy. He predicted the oncological outcome in the fight against kidney cancer. He is very thankful for the opportunity to conduct this research. Without the C4KC funding, he wouldn't have been able to participate in such meaningful work.
Paul Blake
Paul is a PGY-1 resident at the University of Minnesota. He enjoys going on walks and hikes with his wife and dogs, trying new restaurants, running, doing home improvement projects, cooking and traveling. He also went to medical school at UMN, and thinks Minneapolis is a great city with beautiful lakes, a great food scene, and plenty of year-round activities.
Support a Scholar
C4KC Scholarships are one of the primary ways in which we use donations to support kidney cancer research. Donate today to support the next generation of C4KC scholars!