Senior Doctor Academy graduates in the Class of 2026 on May 13 received their honorary white coats and diplomas from the Health Career Opportunity Programs (HCOP) at UConn Health.

The Doctors Academy is part of the highly successful Health Career Opportunity Programs (HCOP) founded over two decades ago by physician-scientist Dr. Marja Hurley, where middle school and high school students of all backgrounds and socio-economic levels receive in-depth education in the health sciences and career path mentorship on Saturdays and in the summer. The Doctors Academy is one of 14 Health Career Opportunity Programs that are part of the Aetna Health Professions Partnership Initiative (HPPI).

The Doctors Academy is supported by Endowments from the Aetna and Drs. John and Valerie Rowe Foundations.

This year’s Academic Year Closing and Annual Recognition Ceremony event had a special, inspiring invited speaker – a brand-new UConn-made doctor in the School of Medicine’s Class of 2026 who is a successful alum on the Doctors Academy.

The newly minted Dr. Lucia Duenas-Bianchi, 30, of Glastonbury just graduated on May 11 from UConn School of Medicine with a dual MD/MPH degree. She participated in HCOP’s Doctors Academy since she was a middle-school student at age 13.

Duenas-Bianchi has had an inspiring journey to fulfill her childhood dreams of becoming a doctor. She was born in Peru and grew up in Connecticut. She went on to earn her Bachelor of Science in Global Public Health with a concentration in Chemistry from New York University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. She just completed both her MD at UConn School of Medicine and her Master of Public Health at UConn’s Program in Applied Public Health Sciences, and will be starting her Internal Medicine Residency at UConn Health this summer. Throughout her training, Duenas-Bianchi has been passionate about research, community health, and lifestyle medicine. She is deeply committed to making medicine more accessible to underserved populations and to mentoring the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Duenas-Bianchi is a proud alum and mentor of the Doctors Academy program, which has played a meaningful role in shaping her path toward medicine.

“This program is a big part of how I got to where I am, and being able to come back and speak to all of you means more to me than you know,” Duenas-Bianchi shared on the evening of May 13 with the Connecticut youth graduating from the HCOP programs. “I was born in Peru and came to the United States when I was four years old. My parents and I immigrated to a completely new country: new language, new school system, new everything. Growing up, there was no roadmap for any of this. No one in my family who had navigated the American college process. No one who could sit me down and say here is exactly what you need to do to become a doctor.”

But Duenas-Bianchi heartwarmingly added, “What I did have was a dream I had carried since I was a toddler. I even still have my Fisher Price doctor’s bag. And then I found this program. HCOP came into my life in middle school, and I am not exaggerating when I say it changed everything. It gave me people who explained what college looked like. It gave me the tools to prepare for exams that felt overwhelming. It gave me mentors and role models who looked like me, who came from backgrounds like mine, who had walked this path before me and that meant everything. Because when you can see it, you can start to believe it is possible,” she said.

Duenas-Bianchi during medical school at UConn even volunteered to serve as a mentor for the HCOP program students to support those following in her footsteps.

“And here is something I really want you to hear: the challenges you have faced, whatever they look like for you, are not limitations. The languages you speak, the things your family has navigated, the perspective you carry: medicine needs that. Your future patients need that. Society needs that. Do not let anyone convince you that what you have been through is something to overcome. It is one of the greatest strengths you bring to this field, and to whatever path you choose,” said Duenas-Bianchi stressing to Connecticut’s youth interested in future careers in the health sciences: “You belong here. I am standing in front of you as proof that this path is real and it is yours if you want it.”

She concluded, “In a few weeks, I begin my residency in Internal Medicine right here at UConn Health. And I will always carry this program with me every step of the way. Dr. Hurley, and everyone in the HCOP department, thank you.”

Hurley and her very dedicated HCOP team are very proud of Duenas-Bianchi’s success along with so many others like her, and all of this year’s HCOP graduating students in the Great Explorations, Jumpstart, and Junior and Senior Doctors Academy.

Congratulations to the Class of 2026 graduates and a special thank you to the parents who get the students up on Saturdays to get to the program to help make all this success possible.