Lauren Kitner, a New Prague native, is interested in one day caring for people as a physician. She’s also a strong advocate of military service. Combining those two interests made sense.
Kitner is a Minnesota National Guard specialist participating in a new, one-of-a-kind program at the University of Minnesota Medical School providing medics like Kitner an opportunity designed to take their military experience and catapult it into a career as a physician. For medics like her, the program is a way to potentially jumpstart a career that may not have been otherwise accessible.
The Military Medic to Medical School Program (MM2MS) guides medics like Kitner with the completion of the prerequisites necessary for acceptance to medical school, provides individualized support, and assists students with preparation for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) – the standardized medical admission test required for those applying to medical school.
Open to medics from all military branches, the program was born out of interest from the university, where it sought new pathways for attracting medical school students. After a summer preparing for the exam, Kitner expects to enter medical school at the U of Minnesota in the fall. She knows her way around the university. Kitner graduated from the U of M in the spring of 2024 with a bachelor of science degree in health and wellbeing with a pre-med emphasis.
The daughter of Carrie and Bret Kitner of New Prague, the 23-yearold Army National Guard soldier acknowledges entering medical school after working as a National Guard medic is somewhat nontraditional. Kitner is a medic in the...
To see more on this story pick up the August 7, 2025 print edition of The New Prague Times.