Jayson Wright ’26, ’27 MPH holds up an agar plate heavily streaked with pale yellow, as though it has been shaded in with colored pencil. A closer inspection shows that each streak is made up of small dots: blooming colonies of Staphylococcus aureus, the bacteria responsible for staph infections. In hospitals, such infections can be fatal.

Wright works in the lab of Thomas Murray, a professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine specializing in infectious disease. They are testing different strains of Staphylococcus bacteria found in hospitals to determine which strains are resistant or susceptible to various antibiotics.

“In neonatal intensive care units, babies may be more susceptible to opportunistic infections,” Wright says. “We’re trying to lower that risk by studying which bacteria are present so we can potentially implement new infection prevention protocols.”

This past fall, Wright began the first year of a master’s in public health concurrently with his senior year at Yale. He aims to use his experience working in this epidemiology lab to inform his public health studies. After he finishes his master’s in public health degree, he plans to move back to Georgia and work in public health at the state level or as a researcher to gain more experience before applying to medical school.

“Georgia is where I grew up,” he says. “It’s a state that means a lot to me; it’s home. And I want to go back and see how I can help.”

Giving Back

Wright has long had his eyes set on a career in healthcare. His grandmother worked as a trauma nurse for forty years at a rural hospital near where Wright grew up, in a town called Milledgeville.

“The more I learned from her about healthcare, the more I was drawn to it,” Wright says. At Yale, he realized that public health and epidemiology were a natural combination of his desire to work in healthcare and his long-standing interest in science and research.

Wright says he ultimately hopes to follow in his grandmother’s footsteps and work at a rural hospital in Georgia.

“There is a serious shortage of healthcare professionals in places like my hometown, and rural healthcare systems are under stress,” Wright says. “In these communities, people are underinsured, yet rates of chronic diseases tend to be higher, and the population of elderly residents tends to be larger. There is a real demand for healthcare access and innovation. I want to be part of the solution.”

A Crucial Research Experience

The career path that Wright envisions wouldn’t have been possible, he says, without the support of Yale’s Science, Technology and Research Scholars Program, better known as STARS. The program provides opportunities for Yale undergraduates from high schools with limited resources in science, technology, engineering, and math. In Wright’s case, it meant getting paid for his research position.

“Realistically, I don’t think I would’ve been able to stick to research if it wasn’t for the STARS funding,” Wright says. He was working two or three jobs during most semesters, and without STARS, any research he would be able to do would have been unpaid.

“STARS is what let me continue to pursue a career in public health and epidemiology research.”