- Burnett School College of Medicine Student Affairs Students
Dr. Kyle Benkel, a 2024 College of Medicine graduate who traded his UCF football jersey for a white coat, was named Friday as a UCF Class of 2025 30 Under 30 Alumni Award recipient. The designation honors visionary young alumni who are committed to excellence and service to the community and their alma mater.
Benkel entered UCF’s medical school after graduating with honors from the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences and playing wide receiver on the UCF football team that beat Auburn in the 2018 Peach Bowl.
He said he decided to enter medicine after seeing how physicians healed him twice from football injuries when he was a teen.
He was part of the “COVID Class” that began medical school in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, and navigated Zoom classes and other curriculum changes as the world implemented social distancing measures to try to stop the pandemic’s spread. Benkel and his classmates received their traditional white coats in a drive-by at the medical school parking lot rather than the traditional formal ceremony on UCF’s main campus.
Today, Benkel is a family medicine resident at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, FL. “I wanted to go into family medicine just because of the variety of patients you have, from newborns to geriatric patients,” he said at his Match Day in 2024. “I’m also super excited about the opportunity to do sports medicine.”
To learn more about the 2025 Class of 30 Under 30, visit https://www.ucf.edu/news/ucf-announces-2025s-30-under-30-alumni-award-recipients/
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- UCF 30 Under 30 Alumni