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Helen Barr Memorial Scholarship Aims to Grow Radiation Oncology Interest - Mitchell Finkelstein

June 30, 2025

Zachary Klaassen speaks with Mitchell Finkelstein about his winning the inaugural Helen Barr Memorial Scholarship from ACRO, which emphasizes getting pre-medical students interested in radiation oncology. The scholarship addresses a critical need in medical education—many pre-med students simply don't know what radiation oncology is, despite understanding that cancer needs to be fought. Mr. Finkelstein's goal is to raise awareness about the field and help future medical students understand the important behind-the-scenes work radiation oncologists do in cancer care. 

Biographies:

Mitchell Finkelstein, Undergraduate Student, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

Zachary Klaassen, MD, MSc, Urologic Oncologist, Assistant Professor of Surgery/Urology at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Wellstar MCG, Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta, GA



Related Content:

ACRO Establishes Scholarship to Support Pre-Med Students Pursuing Radiation Oncology
Read the Full Video Transcript

Zachary Klaassen: Hi, my name is Zach Klaassen, urologic oncologist at Augusta, Georgia. We are at ASCO 2025 in Chicago. I am delighted to be joined on UroToday by Mitchell Finkelstein, who is an undergrad student at Arizona State University. Mitchell, thanks for joining us on UroToday.

Mitchell Finkelstein: Thank you for having me. I am incredibly honored for you guys to have me on. I've had some amazing mentors from Dr. Alan Bryce at Mayo Clinic, Larry Burke, who's down in Florida, Jason Efstathiou from Mass General, and now Chris Pieczonka at Syracuse. I am incredibly honored to have learned from them, and I want to try to make a difference in the future.

Zachary Klaassen: That's awesome. And you got a great award recently from ACRO, looking at getting pre-med students and med students into radiation oncology. Tell us about that award, Mitchell.

Mitchell Finkelstein: I won the inaugural Helen Barr Memorial Scholarship, and it really emphasizes the importance of getting pre-med students, try to get them interested in the field of radiation oncology. And going into medicine and someone who-- I want to try to make an impact and try to make the world a better place.

Zachary Klaassen: Yeah.

Mitchell Finkelstein: I think it really helps try to get the future of medicine interested in what we do.

Zachary Klaassen: It's so important. And I think getting people interested not just in med school to go into radiation oncology, but even in that pre-med setting. You just got this award, but how do you hope this award helps get that excitement going?

Mitchell Finkelstein: I hope it gets the excitement by actually letting pre-med students know what radiation oncology is, because a large majority of students now don't really know what it is. They know cancer is bad. We need to fight cancer, but they don't know the behind the scenes of who actually does the actual work behind the scenes, and so having the actual, "Hey, this is a field of medicine that people need to get into," is certainly a way to do that.

Zachary Klaassen: That's awesome. I think I was a lot older than you when I came to my first ASCO, so it's awesome to see here the radiation oncology field as urologists work very closely with them. So it's fantastic. Congratulations on the award, and we'll look forward to having you back on to discuss the impact of it.

Mitchell Finkelstein: Thank you.