Students in the Nanotechnology course, from left: Ava Cardillo, Diven Duran, Daniel Musheev, and Kai Kumeno.
Parissa Tabrizian, MD, Professor of Surgery, center, gave a tour of operating rooms at The Mount Sinai Hospital to participants in “Saturday at Sinai.”
More than 120 high school, college, and graduate students aspiring to a broad range of careers in health participated this summer in internships and talent pipeline programs throughout the Mount Sinai Health System. Two units of the Office for Diversity and Inclusion (ODI)—Corporate Health System Affairs and the Center for Excellence in Youth Education (CEYE)—supported initiatives to provide opportunities in medicine, science, health administration, real estate, and technology to students from underrepresented backgrounds.
“The experience that I’ve had at Mount Sinai has helped me target what type of biomedical engineer I want to become in the future,” says Awa Bagayoko, who participated in CEYE’s Nanotechnology course. “The program also reaffirmed my interest in medicine.”
Israa Maarouf was an Information Technology intern.
This year marked the be.inning of a formal partnership between Mount Sinai and the New York City Department of Education (DOE) to off er internships to high school students in the departments led by Kumar Chatani, MBA, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Mount Sinai Health System; and Kenneth Holden, Senior Vice President, Real Estate Services & Facilities. “Twenty-six interns gained hands-on experiences in information technology; planning, design, and construction; engineering; and property management,” says Shana Dacon, MPH, MBA, Assistant Director, Office for Diversity and Inclusion. “We will continue to work with the DOE to expand opportunities for students during the academic year.”
Fourteen more students—from high school to graduate school—had internships in clinical departments, patient experience, population health, and diversity management, supported by ODI in partnership with organizations including America Needs You; the All Stars Project, Inc.; the Greater New York Hospital Association; the Institute for Diversity and Health Equity; and Prep for Prep.
This year, ODI also launched Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Young Queer Urban Teens for Health (LGBT YQUTH) in Medicine—a talent pipeline program for careers in health care. In the program, ODI staff and members of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Stonewall Alliance student group gave informational talks to LGBT youth organizations throughout the city. “In June, we welcomed participants from the talks to the pilot ‘Saturday at Sinai’ event,” says Richard Cancio, MPH, Program Manager for LGBT Health Services, Mount Sinai Health System. The free event included interactive activities; a tour of The Mount Sinai Hospital; and a panel of public health researchers, nursing and medical students, and graduate school alumni.
CEYE student Awa Bagayoko toured Sinai BioDesign.
CEYE’s six-week summer internship programs attracted 73 high school students from across New York City. Students participated in the Fruit Fly Genomics or Nanotechnology research courses; the Clinical Internship program; or the Lloyd Sherman Scholars program, a two-year biomedical research program for young men of color.
CEYE’s research courses met daily, with students receiving lecture-based instruction coupled with activities in the Icahn School of Medicine’s teaching laboratories, where projects included studying the behavior of fruit flies kept in isolation, and exploring silver nanoparticles and their medical implications. Clinical Internship participants were matched with faculty and staff and shadowed them in jobs throughout The Mount Sinai Hospital. In the Lloyd Sherman Scholars program, first-year participants took a Biotechnology course, and second-year scholars were placed in mentored research labs. In another two-year program, 14 interns who worked in labs during the school year returned in the summer to continue their work, assisting in areas of study including ovarian cancer survival rates and engineered cardiac tissue. All of the research interns plan to submit their summer work to the upcoming New York City Science and Engineering Fair.
“My internship showed me how hands-on science is,” says Brandon Soto, a first-year Sherman Scholar. “It also showed me that there are a lot of problems in the world that can be solved with science.”