{"id":21639,"date":"2026-06-01T10:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T14:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/?p=21639"},"modified":"2026-06-01T10:58:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T14:58:26","slug":"dr-matthew-calestino-gives-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/news\/dr-matthew-calestino-gives-back\/","title":{"rendered":"From URI to Medicine: Matthew Calestino \u201994 Gives Back Through Scholarship and Teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nearly every day, Dr. Matthew Calestino \u201994 walks into assisted living facilities across central Florida to care for elderly patients \u2013 listening to their stories, managing complex medical conditions, and helping families navigate difficult moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he returns to Rhode Island to speak with students, Dr. Calestino brings decades of experience into the classroom: years spent treating patients across the country, teaching medical residents, and navigating the rapidly evolving world of healthcare. But he also remembers what it felt like to be a student himself at the University of Rhode Island, preparing for a future he already knew would lead to medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That lifelong connection to science, education, and patient care now shapes Dr. Calestino\u2019s continued involvement with URI, where he teaches in the Medical Laboratory Sciences<\/a> program and supports students through a scholarship honoring his family\u2019s legacy in healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Kingston to the Clinic<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Calestino graduated from URI in 1994 with a double major in biology and chemistry before attending medical school at the American University of the Caribbean on the island of St. Martin. He later completed clinical rotations in Rhode Island and residency training in Michigan, launching a career in internal medicine that would take him to hospitals and healthcare systems across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, he practices internal medicine in Florida while also teaching medical students and residents. In recent years, he has returned to URI as an adjunct clinical assistant professor affiliated with the College of the Environment and Life Sciences\u2019 Medical Laboratory Sciences program, where he delivers guest lectures that connect foundational science with real-world patient care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMedicine is very complicated, and it\u2019s important for physicians to have an understanding of how the basic sciences work,\u201d he says. \u201cTo understand what\u2019s really going on, you have to understand the cell \u2013 how it works and what it does.\u201d He often tells students that while physics and chemistry follow predictable rules, medicine is not as predictable because real patients don\u2019t always present like the textbook cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the classroom, Dr. Calestino helps students understand how laboratory science directly impacts clinical decision-making. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at the same information and trying to have the same outcome \u2013  making people better \u2013 but it\u2019s from different viewpoints,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His work with students also reflects the collaborative nature of healthcare, where physicians, laboratory professionals, pharmacists, therapists, and nurses all contribute to patient outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a team approach,\u201d he says. \u201cAll of these departments need to work together to provide care for the patient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building a Legacy at URI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his demanding schedule, Dr. Calestino remains committed to supporting the next generation of URI students. Alongside his wife, he established a scholarship for students in URI\u2019s Medical Laboratory Sciences<\/a> program named in honor of both his grandmother, Naoma Corvese, and his father, John P. Calestino, Jr., who was one of her students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corvese taught cytotechnology at Fatima Hospital in North Providence during the early years of Pap smear screening for cervical cancer detection. Over time, that educational program became connected to URI and eventually evolved within the University\u2019s Medical Laboratory Sciences curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEspecially for this field of science, and especially since that\u2019s where my grandmother\u2019s original program ended up, it\u2019s nice to give back to my alma mater,\u201d Dr. Calestino says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scholarship is awarded annually to a student in the program, and Dr. Calestino hopes recipients become part of a community connected to URI and the profession. Each spring, he returns to campus to present the award in person, inviting past recipients back so that, over time, the scholarship becomes \u201ca legacy movement\u201d of students connected across graduating classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sense of continuity \u2013 connecting generations of healthcare professionals through education, mentorship, and service \u2013 also reflects what keeps Dr. Calestino involved at URI today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For him returning to URI is more than a chance to reflect on where his career began. It is an opportunity to help prepare the next generation of healthcare professionals for a field that continues to evolve while reinforcing the values that remain constant: scientific curiosity, collaboration, and compassion for patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Matthew Calestino \u201994 credits his URI education with laying the foundation for a career in internal medicine. He now returns to URI to support future laboratory professionals and honor his family\u2019s longstanding connection to healthcare education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":21641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21642,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21639\/revisions\/21642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}