December 4, 2024 - By Kathryn Sill

For neurosurgery resident John Choi, MD, M.Ed., his career transition from high school science teacher to doctor is one he considers to go hand in hand.

“Teaching isn’t just about disseminating academic content, but also helping students learn life skills. In the process of teaching, I learned so much about the importance of building a safe culture and emphasizing interpersonal relationships to develop trust. Sometimes that meant listening instead of talking, other times it meant being clear with expectations and having a lot of patience. I saw many of those skills transfer directly into the medical field,” Choi said. “It taught me how to serve others, made me a better listener, and how to be a team player. Whether in the classroom or in a clinic room, these character traits are essential for caring for others.”

Originally from Southern California, Choi developed a fascination with chemistry and physics at a young age, drawn by the nature of discovery in science.

“The innovative aspect of science appealed to me,” Choi said. “In science you can both discover natural processes and also find ways to intervene these processes to create new treatments that ultimately positively impact humans.”

Following high school, Choi attended the University of Southern California (USC) for his undergraduate education, where he graduated summa cum laude in biology, with an emphasis on neurobiology and a minor in psychology.

During his time at USC, Choi worked in a bacteria lab, taught a seminar course about the scientific method, tutored, and created an on-campus non-profit organization called “InterAxon.” In InterAxon, members volunteered at underserved K-12 schools in the Los Angeles area, teaching students about neuroscience. Nearing the end of his senior year, Choi was set to matriculate to medical school but then decided that he wanted to pursue teaching further through Teach for America, a program that brings enthusiastic teachers who have a passion for addressing educational inequity to the nation’s most disadvantaged schools.

Teaching isn’t just about disseminating academic content, but also helping students learn life skills. I saw many of those skills transfer directly into the medical field.

“I remember being at this very critical juncture where I was about to go to medical school, but I kept thinking about how rewarding it had been to work with students directly and wanted to pursue teaching on a high school level,” Choi said.

For three years he taught a variety of different science classes including biology, AP biology, chemistry, and biotechnical design. He did this while concurrently taking night classes at UCLA to complete his Master of Education degree to further delve into how he might be able to address systemic inequities in the educational system. He decided to take a different approach to teaching science, modeling it off his research experience in undergrad that was based heavily on scientific investigation. Rather than telling students how processes worked, he used an inquiry-based method. For example, when it came to teaching photosynthesis, he had the students figure out how chlorophyll concentrations in different leaves led to increased glucose production. He also increased the frequency of lab experiments to twice a week, rather than the previous norm of once every one to two months.

Teaching also extended beyond the scientific content, as Choi noticed many students would come to him for life advice, dubbing him with the nickname “mom” as he provided a sounding board for these students.

Through teaching, Choi measured his success not on his own results, but on the success of his students. He considered it an honor to watch them not just set goals but surpass them.

As Choi’s love of teaching grew, his students started a neuroscience medical club, and while he considered staying in teaching, his students encouraged him to pursue medical school. Just as his students were graduating, he made the transition to start medical school at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Now years later, some of the students he taught have also completed medical school. Choi said it’s really rewarding and special to know some of the students he had the privilege of teaching are now his colleagues in the same profession.

“Teaching was one of the most meaningful roles I have been able to fill,” Choi said. “Through it, I was able to mentor the next generation of students.”

During medical school, Choi first planned on specializing in adolescent medicine, given his interest in public health policy through his teaching experience. However, his curiosity in innovation from the bacterial lab he had worked in during undergrad pushed him to work in a basic science lab for pediatric brain tumors. It was there that he joined the lab of Michael Lim, MD, chair and professor of Neurosurgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine, who at the time was also working at Johns Hopkins.

I find deep meaning in working with patients in one of the toughest moments of their lives, whether that be getting a brain tumor and losing the ability to talk, or a spinal cord injury where the patient loses the ability to move properly.

Under the mentorship of Lim, Choi received the institution’s Harvey Cushing Research Award for his research in brain tumor and cerebrovascular immunology. Being in Lim’s lab inspired Choi to adopt a mindset of treating multiple conditions by understanding basic principles in immunology. Then, during his neurosurgery rotations, Choi was enamored by the surgeries and realized he wanted to make a career dedicated to caring for brain tumor patients.

“I find deep meaning in working with patients in one of the toughest moments of their lives, whether that be getting a brain tumor and losing the ability to talk, or a spinal cord injury where the patient loses the ability to move properly,” Choi said. “Our work is intrinsically tied to our patients’ identities. I consider it a privilege to help patients and their family members by explaining the diagnosis, offering a treatment, and being a resource for them in their medical journey.”

Shortly after Choi matched at Stanford for his neurosurgery residency, he found out Lim had accepted the chair position there. Together with Lim he helped build his lab at Stanford from the ground up, inspired by his example of being a surgeon-scientist.

But he never kept teaching too far away from his mind. During his research elective years, Choi not only organized all the didactic sessions for the junior residents but also created a class for undergrad students at Stanford called Neurosurgical Frameworks; the aim of this class was to reach underrepresented minorities who have a desire to learn about neuroscience through a clinical lens. In the class, Choi brought patients with neurosurgical conditions to the classroom, allowing students to interview patients and humanize these neurosurgical conditions firsthand rather than through a textbook. Over 100 students enrolled in the class last year. In Lim’s lab, Choi also mentors eight students and has trained other residents and postdoctoral fellows in the lab while leading projects in understanding immunometabolism and reversing immunosuppression in brain tumors.

Upon graduation in 2027, he plans to find an academic neurosurgery position where he can synergize his passion for teaching, research interests in neuro-oncology and neuroimmunology, and have a bustling surgical practice where he can work with patients in an impactful manner. He hopes to work in an environment where he can continue working with incredible colleagues such as his current co-residents Lily Kim and Danny Huang.

“At the end of the day, while I do love the research and teaching aspects of my job, the thing that matters most are the patients. As Dr. Lim says all the time, everything we do is for the patient,” Choi said. “Patient-center care is always at the forefront of why I went into medicine, and I’m excited about my future career steps.”