Community Spotlight: Genesis Perez-Melara

Genesis, you have a unique experience - you first came to HMS as a 14-year-old to participate in the student-run HPREP program and then subsequently participated in OCCE’s Hinton AP Biology program and the Project Success high school program, and later worked for a summer as a Project Success coordinator.

How do you think those early career exposure and skill building opportunities influenced/impacted your path into medicine?

Yes, I first came to Harvard Medical School as a 14-year-old through the Health Professions Recruitment & Exposure Program (HPREP), and at that time, medicine and research felt like worlds that were very far away from me. I was a first-generation, low-income student, the daughter of immigrant parents who had not had the opportunity to graduate from high school. I did not grow up with physicians or scientists in my family, and I did not always have examples around me of what it looked like to pursue a career in medicine.

Programs like HPREP, OCCE’s Project Success, and AP Hinton Scholars changed that for me. They made medicine and research feel possible, not abstract or out of reach. They helped me understand that my background did not disqualify me from excellence. In many ways, they gave me permission to imagine myself in spaces that I had not previously known how to access.

These programs also taught me parts of the “hidden curriculum” that many first-generation students do not automatically receive. I learned how to build relationships with mentors, how to ask for help, how to prepare for college-level science, and how to navigate the expectations of premedical training. I still remember a session that broke down not only how many hours students should expect to study in college, but also how to make time for basic life needs like eating, exercising, doing laundry, and taking care of yourself. That may sound simple, but for a student without much parental guidance about college, those lessons were essential.

Returning later as a Project Success coordinator and as a lab tutor for AP Hinton Scholars was incredibly meaningful. By then, I had graduated from college, worked as an organic chemistry lab teaching assistant, and tutored biology. I knew that mentorship and teaching had to remain part of my career because they had been so transformative in my own life. Supporting students from backgrounds similar to mine taught me the importance of advocacy, patience, connection, and compassion. Qualities I hope to carry with me as a physician.

You are doing your residency in Family Medicine. What has drawn you to that specialty?  

My path to family medicine was long and deeply personal. Growing up, I watched someone close to me struggle with a chronic reproductive and metabolic health condition during a period when our family life was unstable. Without consistent support, it became difficult for her to remain connected to care. Over time, I saw how fear, shame, and barriers to follow-up can keep someone from seeking help, even when they are living near major medical institutions.

That experience stayed with me. It taught me that access to care is not only about proximity to hospitals or clinics. It is also about trust, stability, health literacy, cultural humility, transportation, family dynamics, and whether patients feel safe returning to care after time away. Growing up in a community of immigrants and working-class families, I saw many similar stories of unmet health needs shaped by circumstances far beyond individual choice.

For a long time in medical school, however, I struggled to find where I belonged in medicine. I found many parts of clinical care meaningful, but no specialty felt fully fulfilling. At times, I felt lost and even questioned whether becoming a physician was truly the right path for me. It was difficult to reconcile my love for community, advocacy, mentorship, and longitudinal relationships with the specialty options I had been exposed to early in training.

A turning point came through the power of connection and mentorship. A good friend from high school, who had also participated in AP Hinton Scholars with me, connected me with the person who would become one of my most supportive mentors at HMS: a family physician. Through her mentorship, I began to see that the values I had been searching for in medicine: community-based care, relationships over time, advocacy, prevention, and caring for patients within the context of their lives. Which are central attributes of family medicine. In many ways, she saw before I fully did that where I truly belonged was in the community, caring for patients who needed care the most. I am deeply grateful to both my friend and my mentor for helping me find the medical field I had not fully known how to name.

I first recognized how closely my values aligned with family medicine during my clinical rotations. Unfortunately, HMS does not require a family medicine rotation in the same way many medical schools do, so I was not meaningfully exposed to the field until later in medical school. When I finally experienced family medicine and primary care more directly, so many pieces of my story began to come together.

On my maternal-fetal medicine rotation, I was drawn to patients and families with limited social support, chronic conditions, and complex needs beyond the walls of the hospital. Our team advocated for a patient without childcare so that her other child could remain with her during delivery despite ward restrictions. I also worked with pathology to support a couple in honoring their cultural tradition of burying their newborn's placenta. These experiences reminded me that excellent care requires clinical knowledge, but it also requires humility, cultural understanding, and advocacy.

At the same time, I often found myself wondering what would happen after discharge. I wanted to know how the children would grow and develop, whether their mothers would receive the follow-up they needed, and how pregnancy complications might shape their long-term risk for chronic conditions like metabolic disease. I also wondered whether families would receive the social supports they needed once they left the hospital. Those questions helped me realize that I was drawn not only to moments of acute care, but to continuity and caring for patients and families over time, in the context of their lives, communities, and long-term health.

Volunteering with the Massachusetts General Hospital Community Care Van in Chelsea further shaped my understanding of the kind of physician I want to become. In a largely Spanish-speaking, immigrant community, I saw a model of care that was accessible, culturally responsive, and rooted in trust. Working alongside community health workers and nurse practitioners, I helped care for uninsured and undocumented patients, supported chronic disease management, discussed medications, and connected patients to social resources through a neighboring community center.

During my family medicine rotation, these experiences came together. I cared for a patient with Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS) who had been lost to follow-up and returned with metabolic syndrome and amenorrhea. As we built trust, they shared that they were in an abusive relationship, which added another layer of complexity to her care. With my preceptor, I helped develop a plan that addressed her medical needs while also prioritizing her safety and social context. That patient helped me understand that family medicine is where I belong.

­­­­­­­­­­­­Family medicine allows me to care for the whole patient, not just a diagnosis, but the family, community, culture, and lived circumstances that shape health. It is the specialty where my personal experiences, clinical interests, commitment to underserved communities, and love for mentorship all come together. As a family medicine physician, I hope to provide community-based care to complex patients across the lifespan, mentor the next generation of physicians, and help build systems of care that are more accessible, trusting, and responsive to the communities that need them most.

 Are there any experiences of mentoring, or other kinds of professional support you received that really made a difference for you?

Mentorship and peer support have been central to my path. Programs like HPREP, Project Success, AP Hinton Scholars, the Summer Health Professions Education Program at Yale, and the summer undergraduate research program at UMass Medical School gave me more than academic exposure. They gave me community.

As a first-generation student, I often did not know what questions I was supposed to ask or what steps I was supposed to take next. Mentors helped make the path more visible. They explained the hidden curriculum, encouraged me when I doubted myself, and helped me understand that I belonged in medicine and research.

Peer support was equally important. Many of the friendships I built through these programs lasted beyond a summer or a single academic year. We supported each other through college, premedical coursework, research experiences, applications, and moments of self-doubt. Having peers who understood the experience of navigating medicine without generational knowledge or financial privilege made the journey feel less isolating.

These experiences also shaped the kind of mentor I try to be. Through HOPE Scholars, teaching, admissions work, and peer mentorship, I have found joy in helping other students see possibilities for themselves. I know from experience that mentorship can change the trajectory of a student’s life, especially when it helps them feel seen, capable, and worthy of support.

 Do you have any guidance you would share young people who, like you, are first generation students with a strong desire to pursue medicine?

I would tell them: your background is not a weakness. It may mean that you have to learn certain systems without a roadmap, but it also gives you insight, resilience, and purpose that medicine needs.

I would also encourage them to actively seek out opportunities and information. For many first-generation and low-income students, knowledge about the hidden curriculum is not automatically handed to us. We often have to search for programs through advisors or even on the Internet like I did, ask questions, reach out to mentors, talk to peers, and advocate for ourselves even when it feels uncomfortable.

At the same time, I would want them to know that they do not have to do it alone. Look for pipeline programs, mentorship programs, research opportunities, student organizations, and people who are willing to explain the process. Ask the “basic” questions. Ask for feedback. Ask for help before you feel completely lost.

Most importantly, do not confuse unfamiliarity with inability. Not knowing how a system works does not mean you do not belong in it. It means someone needs to teach you the rules, and one day, you may be the person who makes the path clearer for someone else.

Is there anything else that you would like to share?

At a time when institutions are changing the language they use to describe diversity, equity, and inclusion, I hope my story serves as a reminder of what these programs actually do. They are not abstract political ideas. They are pathways that help students imagine futures they may not have otherwise known were possible. For me, early exposure, mentorship, and intentional support changed the trajectory of my life. They helped me move from being a teenager walking into HMS for the first time through HPREP to becoming a graduating medical student preparing to train as a family physician. As physicians, we care for an incredibly diverse patient population. There is deep value in building a physician workforce that reflects that, but not only in race or ethnicity, but also in language, class background, immigration history, geography, and lived experiences. When patients see physicians who understand their communities, and when physicians are trained alongside classmates from many walks of life, medicine becomes more compassionate, more responsive, and more trustworthy. At a time when trust in medicine is being questioned, building a physician workforce that reflects the communities we serve is not symbolic, it is essential to patient care.