From cell to cell: Kyle Cole builds bridges for nontraditional learners at Stanford

Nikkhilesh Ranjith still has the photo from his first day at Stanford Medicine — in which he stands, in his own words, beaming with “pure joy, pride, gratitude and a lot of disbelief.”

Ranjith, a formerly incarcerated student, came to Stanford to work at the Helms Lab in summer 2024.

“I cannot emphasize enough how crazy it is to go from sitting in a cell where you have no control over anything to sitting in a high-tech lab like something out of a movie, doing things we actually see in movies...