Navigate with the arrows to learn more about the Class of 2023 and their time in medical school.
The class of 2023 graduated from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai on Thursday, May 11, after a journey that was not only long, but marked by tribulation.
“You witnessed the strong moral character of our Mount Sinai physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals. You saw them put their lives on the line to battle COVID-19, to save lives,” said Dennis Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Icahn Mount Sinai, addressing graduating students and their families and friends, faculty, and trustees, at the Commencement ceremony.
“You witnessed our scientists, shortly after the onset of the pandemic, return to their laboratories to solve the riddles of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Dr. Charney said.
As guests gathered at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center to celebrate the new cohort of physicians and scientists embarking on the next step of their careers, none were more excited than the graduating students.
“We are the last class to graduate from Mount Sinai who all began medical school before the pandemic,” noted graduating student James Johnson, MD, who gave a speech on behalf of his class.
“Because of this, we all had other motivations to practice medicine—other primary drivers in our pursuit of this field,” Dr. Johnson said. “We still own those passions and hobbies we enjoyed at the start, and we can still channel them when the road ahead appears dark yet again.”
Click to read what some graduates had to say on what drew them to the profession and Icahn Mount Sinai:
Margaret Hung, PhD
What drew you to research and to Mount Sinai?
I fell in love with the vibrancy and community at Mount Sinai. It’s a world class hospital with incredible basic science and translational research, but what sets it apart from other high-ranking institutions was how down to earth my training area, department, and institute were. Mentors truly cared and were heavily invested in my success beyond what I could supply from the bench. That type of commitment provided me with a very well-rounded, foundational training as a scientist.
Was there a challenging moment during your time at Icahn Mount Sinai, and how did you overcome it?
Like many other researchers at Mount Sinai, the COVID-19 pandemic turned my research upside down. I was a third-year student and my work with mice on a skeletal muscle stem cell project had just started scaling up when the pandemic hit.
Unfortunately, I did not have the option to pivot to COVID-19 research for my thesis work. It felt like the floor had fallen out from under me. The enthusiasm and excitement I had gave way to severe anxiety from not knowing what would happen next, if I would be able to complete a project, or what my PhD would even look like.
In the months following our return to labs, when I had to restart my projects, everything felt slow and hopeless due to supply chain issues and lack of mice. With the support of my mentor, Robert Krauss, PhD, professor of Cell, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, my lab, and my colleagues, I was able to celebrate small victories as I slowly returned to full-scale experiments. I’m so grateful that I could find that excitement again and finish a dissertation that I could be proud of.
Kasopefoluwa (Sope) Oguntuyo, MD, PhD
What drew you to medicine and research and to Mount Sinai?
My experiences during my undergraduate and post-baccalaureate years drew me to medicine and research. I recognized that medicine represented the application of current knowledge to care for patients now and research represented the potential to generate knowledge to ultimately improve patient care in the future. I am excited to continue using my stethoscope to care for patients now and a pipette to work towards improving patient care.
Prior to my matriculation into the MD/PhD program, I was a National Institutes of Health scholar at the Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program at Mount Sinai. As a result, I had a glimpse into the unique community here, which included an incredibly passionate student body with varied interests, a collaborative and innovative research environment, and compassionate clinicians.
What three words would you use to describe your journey at Icahn Mount Sinai?
Creative—In my pre-clinical years, I took a short writing seminar called “Words to Live By.” We discussed pieces by published authors and workshopped our own pieces. I had the opportunity to read incredible pieces from my peers, which included chapters from novels, short stories, or poems. I have had the opportunity to receive feedback on several of my pieces and even published a few essays and poems.
Collaborative—Throughout my graduate years in the lab of Benhur Lee, MD, Professor of Microbiology, I’ve collaborated with various labs at Mount Sinai and other domestic and international labs. The SARS-CoV-2 work we did was a reflection of this collaborative spirit and we shipped out a ready-to-use system of Biosafety Level 2 (BSL2) viruses and cells to collaborators in Louisiana and Argentina and many other places to study SARS-CoV-2 entry biology and test entry inhibition.
Community—I’ve been a member of various communities during my time at Mount Sinai. These included organizations intended to foster community for students from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in medicine or research, the Mount Sinai Climbing Club, and playing adult league soccer with my peers.
Nicholas Athayde-Rizzaro, MD
What drew you to medicine and Mount Sinai?
Growing up as a transgender person in Brazil was not easy. I suffered with institutional and societal exclusion, including being kicked out of high school and being unable to access health care simply for being queer.
While I had always dreamed of pursuing a career in medicine, my experiences of marginalization motivated me to become a physician who can create a safe, respectful, and welcoming environment not only for trans folks, but for all of those who come from vulnerable and underserved communities.
Not only was I accepted into Mount Sinai, I was also accepted to the Primary Care Scholars Program, which provided an opportunity to get longitudinal exposure to safety-net clinics throughout all four years of medical school. My acceptance to the program, coupled with Mount Sinai’s humanistic ethos, the diversity of New York City’s patient population, and my own personal story of coming back full circle to the place where I was born to pursue my dream of studying medicine made Icahn Mount Sinai the clear choice for me.
Can you recall a moment at Icahn Mount Sinai that has helped you grow?
During the height of the pandemic, students were not allowed to go into labs, which completely derailed my summer research project. I had to change directions, and I ended up designing a survey to assess what access to health care looked like for the trans community during the pandemic. This was a difficult undertaking since it was an independent research project and I had never built an entire project from scratch.
However, I had help from the Director of the Medical Student Research Office, Mary Rojas, PhD, who guided me along the way. I also never expected to get the amount of responses I did on my survey, and was profoundly grateful that so many participants trusted this project to make their voices heard. Not only did I push my limits and learn a lot, but I was also moved by the support I received from Dr. Rojas and by the engagement from the trans community.