Service, research, academics win Braeden Shields ’26 acceptance to medical school
Service, research, academics win Braeden Shields ’26 acceptance to medical school
By Vicki-Ann Downing ’21G
Academic achievement, research experience, and a commitment to service combined to earn Braeden Shields ’26 early acceptance to Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School during his junior year at Providence College.
Brown’s Early Identification Program selects up to five high-achieving students each year from colleges in Rhode Island for early provisional acceptance to the Warren Alpert Medical School. Shields, a member of the Honors Program majoring in biology and in health policy and management, learned of his acceptance in early 2025. Connor Enestvedt ’26, a biology major and honors student from Cumberland, Rhode Island, was accepted as well.
Shields, from Barrington, Rhode Island, was unaware of the program when he enrolled at PC. He learned about it midway through his sophomore year while shadowing his pediatrician, Kevin Clegg, M.D. ’88, who also attended PC before earning his medical degree at Brown.
When Shields began college, he was not sure he wanted to be a physician but knew he wanted a career helping others. He chose to major in health policy and management, adding biology as a second major once his plans became clear.
“Providence has offered me a perfect blend of academics and the opportunity to enjoy a different side of college,” Shields said. “I’ve studied a blend of science and healthcare. Biology has given me the problem-solving aspect of medicine. Health policy and management has allowed me to step back and examine the ethical and logistical dimensions of healthcare.”
Shields’ commitment to service was shaped early. From fourth through sixth grade, he lived in Singapore while his father oversaw the construction of a manufacturing plant.
“My parents wanted us to experience all walks of life at a young age,” Shields said, so they traveled throughout Asia, working with nonprofit organizations such as Caring for Cambodia. They helped to repair a school, establish gardens, and teach English in Indonesia on a volunteer school trip. Shields learned that service “was both a responsibility and an opportunity.”
Once home in the United States, he felt removed from the hardships he had seen while abroad. That perception shifted during the summer following his first year at PC, when he relied on RIPTA public transportation to commute between home, work, and EMT certification classes. At Kennedy Plaza in downtown Providence, “I saw Narcan canisters littering the ground — evidence of drug overdoses — and requests for medical aid I couldn’t provide,” Shields said. “I realized that what I saw as a child didn’t just happen on the other side of the world.”
Shields applied for the Brown program during a demanding junior year. He carried a 23-credit course load — the usual is 15 credits — while volunteering as a medical assistant at the Rhode Island Free Clinic and organizing students on a Global Medical Brigade trip to Belize. After raising $20,000 during winter break in December 2024, Shields and eight students, including co-leader Paige Duggan ’26, traveled to Belize to work on sanitation projects and do community medical outreach alongside healthcare professionals.
Shields was inspired by his experience with a Global Medical Brigade to Panama when he was a sophomore and by service trips during his years at Bishop Hendricken High School. He remembers Thomas Gambardella, director of Christian service there, proclaiming, “Put God’s needs first, and others’ needs before your own, and you’ll live a great life.” After Gambardella’s death and the cancellation of a planned service trip due to the pandemic, Shields and fellow classmates organized a mission trip to Brownsville, Texas, in Gambardella’s memory.
While service was central to his journey, Shields understood the importance of research in preparing for medical school. He joined the laboratory of Marla Tipping, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, as a sophomore. Supported by Undergraduate Research Grants, he conducted fruit fly research and presented his findings at the college’s annual Celebration of Scholarship and Creativity and at the Annual Drosophila Research Conference in San Diego. He will present additional findings in Chicago in March 2025 and is contributing to an academic paper that his research group will publish.
Another research experience came through an alumni connection. During the summer before his junior year, Shields was studying Organic Chemistry l and ll with Jay Pike, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry, and working early morning shifts at the Concannon Fitness Center. There, he connected with Kyle McInnis, Sc.D., inaugural dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences. Their conversations about research and medicine prompted McInnis to connect Shields with Gus Cervini ’88, a member of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences Advisory Board and vice president for research administration at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Through Cervini, Shields secured a research internship in the hospital’s Orthopedic Research Department for the summer of 2025. Under the mentorship of Matthew Warman, Ph.D., he conducted research on rare genetic diseases in mice, a project requiring check-ups every two hours, resulting in many overnight stays. With no coursework that summer, Shields trained for a marathon, often running in the early morning hours between research checks. He completed the Clarence Demar Marathon in Keene, New Hampshire, finishing in in 3 hours and 37 minutes, in September 2025.
An athlete in high school, he has made time for intramural sports at PC, too. After being notified about his preliminary acceptance to Brown, Shields completed the day by rushing to an intramural inner-tube water polo match — a game his team won.
“It was a good day,” Shields said.
He credits faculty and staff members for their support during the medical school application process. Will Toner, assistant dean and director of peer education in the Student Success Center, helped refine his personal statement, while Rev. Mark Nowel, O.P., associate provost for academic policy and mission support, and Morgan Rayner, health professions advisor, provided the college’s letter of support.
He is grateful to the faculty members and mentors who encouraged and shaped his path to medicine, including Clegg, Pike, Tipping, and Deborah Levine, Ph.D., associate professor of health sciences and inaugural associate dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences.
As Shields looks ahead to beginning medical school in August 2026 as a member of the Class of 2030, he already has a month of classes behind him. In August 2025, Shields and Enestvedt were invited by Brown to spend the first month alongside the incoming medical school class, attending lectures and completing their first medical school exam.
Shields is open-minded about the future. He knows that he wants to heal and serve his community and hopes to teach and mentor future students, sharing the experiences that guided him when his path was uncertain.
As a student ambassador for the School of Nursing and Health Sciences, Shields welcomes prospective students to campus and helps them navigate the college decision process. His message to them is consistent: “I could not recommend Providence College more as a school. I could not have been happier these four years.”
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