Ritika SamantRitika Samant, a medical student at the Heersink School of Medicine, has been awarded the 2025 Sara Crews Finley, M.D., Endowed Leadership Scholarship.
This scholarship is a prestigious, full-tuition award honoring a rising third-year student who exemplifies academic excellence, integrity, leadership, and service, qualities that define Finley’s legacy. Samant ranks in the top 25 percent of her class and enters her clinical years with both distinction and purpose.
Samant graduated summa cum laude with a degree in neuroscience and earned her Master of Public Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She is the only student ever to receive the University President’s Award for Excellence in Support of UAB and Shared Governance, a testament to her exceptional dedication and influence.
Her journey to medicine is rooted in community service, advocacy, and an unwavering commitment to equity. A 3rd degree black belt and former taekwondo trainee, she lives by the principles of courtesy, integrity, perseverance, and indomitable spirit. From serving as the Undergraduate Student Government Association’s president in college to leading student-run outreach organizations, Samant has transformed her passion for service into tangible impact.
“She is an instigator who finds or creates innovative ways to engage, whether as an advocate for health equity and wellness, a filmmaker, a medical researcher, an arts education ambassador, a volunteer reader to young students, or an accomplished taekwondo practitioner and instructor,” said Sara J. Finley, daughter of Sara Crews Finley, M.D. “We are proud to welcome Ritika to the community of Sara C. Finley, M.D. Leadership Scholars.”
Her leadership shines in roles such as president of Cooking with the Community, a student-led community service organization, as an Equal Access Birmingham officer, and as a peer tutor for Heersink’s Medical Student Services Office. She also serves on the Continuous Quality Improvement committee, helping shape curriculum development. In her undergraduate studies, she was a Health Policy Ambassador, UAB Ambassador, and president of Active Minds at UAB, where she championed wellness, inclusion, and policy reform.
“Being a Sara Crews Finley Scholar means being someone who has the potential to walk in Dr. Finley’s footsteps and further forge the path that she blazed. She was an absolutely involved community member who took to heart what it means to work towards a better future for all. She did something that many talk about, but few do: She used her privilege, prowess, and power as a physician to effect positive change within and beyond the clinic and out to Birmingham, Alabama, the greater Southeast, nationally, and even globally. Whether it was making leaps and strides researching medical genetics, whether it was serving on the medical admissions committee where she was able to retain Alabama talent, or whether it was being an involved community member in the variety of organizations she was eventually honored by, I’d like to think that being a Sara Crews Finley Scholar means that some part of me reflects some part of her,” Samant shared.
Sara Crews Finley, M.D., whose legacy the scholarship honors, was a pioneer in medical genetics. She served for 35 years as UAB faculty, co-founded the first medical genetics program in the Southeast with her husband, Wayne H. Finley, M.D., Ph.D., and co-led the Laboratory of Medical Genetics for more than three decades. She also broke barriers as the first woman to lead the University of Alabama Medical Alumni Association and the Jefferson County Medical Society, and served as a trailblazing member of the Rotary Club of Birmingham and the Compass Bank board. Her brilliance and generosity continue to inspire future generations of physicians.
Samant attributes her success to the love and guidance of her family and mentors. “I am the sum of their love for me,” she reflected. “My father fostered my curiosity... My mother taught me the importance of a strong work ethic... And finally, from my brother I learned that there is always a reason to laugh a little bit harder, a little bit longer.” Samant will be the first physician in her family.
Her motivation is deeply personal. “Health is such a difficult space for so many people. It can be riddled with stigma. It’s expensive, it’s confusing, it’s scary. It’s at the focal point of every aspect of one’s life. And in medicine, I get to be a part of it. Of making a diagnosis less scary, of decoding the complex terminology, of working to obtain coverage for treatment, and of being a friend with a hug at the ready for everything in between.”
As she begins her third year of medical school, Samant feels she is exactly where she belongs. “Finally, in the thick of the hospital workflow, I feel at home. I know medicine is where I’m meant to be.”
Though she has a soft spot for oncology, she is keeping an open mind to where her passions may lie as she works to build a career that brings health, healing, and hope to every life she touches.