When she started her undergraduate degree, Carinne Geil wasn’t sure if her “why” was in music or medicine. In high school, she was a Pennsylvania All-State vocalist, and she conducted a competitive marching band in the Electric Parade at Disneyworld.

“While I was knee-deep in my premedical coursework,” says Geil, a 2019 Legacy Awards scholar who was awarded a 2023 Gunther and Lee Weigel Medical School scholarship, “it was easy to get caught up in the competitive and intense atmosphere surrounding me and lose my ‘why.’”

While studying chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Geil volunteered with the nonprofit Musical Empowerment, and it changed her life forever. For four years, she served as a mentor, led monthly teacher support groups, and taught flute and voice lessons.

Her most memorable experience with the nonprofit came from teaching piano to a young girl, and Geil discovered that she had as much to learn from her mentees as they did from her. During those four years, Geil watched her mentee grow, and she got to walk alongside her mentee as she was adopted by her foster parents.

“Not only did she serve as a weekly reminder of my ‘why,’ but she was the catalyst of my interest in working in community health and with underserved populations,” says Geil.

Though she decided to pursue a career in medicine instead of music, she keeps music close to her heart.

“Music may not heal with antibiotics or surgical procedures,” says Geil, “but it heals with words and chords and it offers an escape from the complex world we live in. Being a musician has gifted me the ability to see the most vulnerable parts of humanity, and it has paved the way on my personal path to healing.”

Just like she did through Musical Empowerment, Geil wants to create long-term relationships with her patients so she can help them with lifestyle and chronic disease management and become a difference maker.

“Through my lived experience, I am very confident in the physician I hope to become and my intended specialty,” says Geil. “I have a unique perspective, allowing me to better connect with patients and families from all walks of life, all over the globe.”

With the Weigel Scholarship, Geil will attend West Virginia University School of Medicine to study family and integrative medicine.