Ally Parpounas, MS
Ally Parpounas, MS, is a second-year student in the MD program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She previously completed the Master of Science in Biomedical Science (MSBS) at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
It was her decision to attend the MSBS program at Mount Sinai, along with her eventual participation in a number of different programs sparked by her desire to help people in need, that would lead to medical school, which in turn has opened a number of different career pathways.
Ms. Parpounas studied neuroscience at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and studied abroad at the Danish Institute of Study in Copenhagen, Denmark. While at the Institute, she took a psychopharmacology course that sparked her interest in research. The course taught students how neural circuitry is implicated in various psychiatric conditions. She learned how to redirect it by developing a “pharmacological cocktail” that would minimize both side effects and symptoms.
“This experience unlocked my curiosity about the physiologic mechanisms that underlie disease, and so I began to consider a career in medicine,” she says. She soon changed her major from psychology to neuroscience.
After completing her undergraduate program in 2020, she took a gap year working at an in-patient acute care psychiatric hospital in Washington D.C. She worked there for a year before deciding that she needed more basic research experience before medical school. A Master of Science in Biomedical Science seemed like a natural next step.
While looking at master’s programs, she noticed Mount Sinai’s MSBS program. She began looking into a few labs to determine what she wanted to study and focus on. She was drawn to the pharmacology research of the Daniel Wacker, PhD lab, where she would eventually be placed. She applied to a few other programs, but the MSBS program at Mount Sinai stood out because of the strong research component. She was also interested in living in New York City because it was close to where she grew up in Peekskill, New York, about an hour north of the city. She started the MSBS program in August 2021.
During her time in the program, she worked in a number of different areas that would eventually help shape her interest in a future career in medicine.
She volunteered and conducted clinical shadowing with the Mount Sinai Human Rights Program, which provides medical and psychological evaluations for people seeking asylum in the United States. The program helps people who are typically victims of human trafficking, political violence, and other difficult circumstances. They use these evaluations and affidavits to assist with asylum cases. She worked as one of the lead clinic managers.
“The program has shown me how we can leverage our roles as clinicians to protect the health and human rights of individuals, in addition to the traditional role providing direct medical care,” she says. “It’s incredible to see the impact you make on someone life beyond just their medical care.”
She also led the graduate school’s mentorship program. Mentors help first year students navigate decisions, such as determining what they want in a lab placement. Her positive experience doing this in her first year inspired her to act as a mentor for other students during her second year.
She was also a clinic manager at the East Harlem Outreach Partnership (EHHOP), the Icahn School of Medicine’s student-run, physician-supervised, free clinic. She has continued this work while in medical school as a part of the Access to Care Team, which helps patients gain access to medicines, healthy food, and legal assistance. She is now on ACT team leadership as the ACT Resources Chair.
She believes that the opportunities she had to get clinical experience helped shape her drive towards medical school.
“My previous experiences helped inform my direction for medical school and the type of work I want to do when I become a physician,” she says. “My training in the MSBS program helped make me a more thoughtful and intentional applicant to medical school.”
“The program has shown me how we can leverage our roles as clinicians to protect the health and human rights of individuals, in addition to the traditional role providing direct medical care. It’s incredible to see the impact you make on someone life beyond just their medical care.”
The Graduate School provides support to help master’s students seeking to continue their education through PhD or MD programs. Ms. Parpounas worked with a student advisor in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) that helped with her medical school application process. The student advisors provide services such as creating an MCAT study schedule and essay review and revision help. This support was available as needed, but it was up to Ally to schedule meetings and manage the process.
“When I was studying for the MCAT exam, my friends in the medical school and the MSAP advisors (the MSTP student advisors) recommended study plans and resources, like Anki flashcards, that were more similar to what people use in medical school vs undergrad. I think studying in this way helped me get an MCAT score that I was proud of and made me feel more ready for the academic rigor of medical school,” she says.
She completed the MSBS program in June 2023 and received the Award for Excellence in Biomedical Science Leadership and Service Award for her volunteering and mentorship. She then applied to a few MD programs and was accepted to the program at the Icahn School of Medicine. Ally appreciates being in the first class to experience the new ASCEND curriculum, which was introduced in the fall of 2024. The objective of this curriculum revamp is to provide a personalized and active-learning approach aimed at transforming the way knowledge and clinical experiences are acquired.
Upon completing her MD, Ally is interested in a few different paths in medicine. She is currently working with Leah Habersham, MD, Director of the Bridge Program at Mount Sinai. The Bridge Program is an integrated clinic providing women’s health care, including obstetrics and gynecology, along with care for substance use disorder.
These experiences at Mount Sinai have sparked an interest in a wide variety of areas, including specialties such as obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and internal medicine. But she believes it’s important to keep an open mind and will explore more once she begins her clinical clerkships in February 2026.