Kumar Chatani, MBA, congratulates IT Talent Pipeline intern Timothy Natal for completing the program.
More than 120 high school, college, and graduate students aspiring to careers in medicine, science, hospital administration, and Information Technology (IT) participated in a variety of internships and talent pipeline programs offered throughout the Mount Sinai Health System during the summer. Supported by the Office for Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Center for Excellence in Youth Education (CEYE), these initiatives continue a long-standing commitment of providing opportunities to students of underrepresented backgrounds in medicine, science, and technology.
“My experience gave me a fresh look at health care,” says Emily Jweid, a student in the MBA program at Wagner College in Staten Island and
Devin Sullivan, JD, Vice President of Labor Relations, and Administrative Fellowship Site Preceptor, Mount Sinai St. Luke’s, with Elizabeth Persaud, MPH.
one of five Greater New York Hospital Association administrative interns who attended an ODI-sponsored roundtable with Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mount Sinai Health System. ODI interns, who also came from the All Stars Project, Inc.; Committee for Hispanic Children and Families; and Prep for Prep, additionally met with hospital presidents and Gary C. Butts, MD, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Mount Sinai Health System, and Dean of Diversity Programs and Policies at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Ten interns, among them Luis Santos, a senior at Chelsea Career and Technical High School, also participated in ODI’s new IT Talent Pipeline Program. Luis was especially inspired after meeting Kumar Chatani, MBA, Chief Information Officer, Mount Sinai Health System, and says he can now better shape his college major and future career path.
This summer also marked the start of the Mount Sinai Health System’s Administrative Fellowship Program. The first cohorts, Christina Cellante, MHA, and Jean-Luc Coletta, MHA, at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, and Michelle Kang, MHA, and Elizabeth Persaud, MPH, at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s, began their two-year tenure as administrative fellows in July. Ms. Persaud, an alumna of CEYE’s Hospital Placement program and a 2015 MPH graduate of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, says she plans to use her knowledge to bridge the gap between the hospital and community and eliminate disparities in care.
Students went on a class trip to Cornell University as part of their Nanotechnology research course. From left: Rahmel Bailey, Sanjana Ali, Nazia Mahjabin, and Christiny Celestin.
CEYE’s six-week summer research and clinical internship programs attracted 96 high school students from across New York City. Students were selected to participate in either the Fruit Fly Genomics, Environmental Health: Zebrafish Toxicology, or Nanotechnology research course; the Hospital Placement clinical internship program; or the Lloyd Sherman Scholars program, a two-year biomedical research program for young men of color.
Student Kenny Vasquez in Mount Sinai’s Fruit Fly in Genomics Lab.
CEYE’s research courses met daily, and students received lecture-based instruction coupled with hands-on laboratory activities in a School of Medicine teaching laboratory, where projects included examining nicotine addiction in fruit flies and using music to test zebrafish startle reactions. Hospital Placement students were matched with faculty and staff and shadowed them as they performed their jobs in various departments throughout The Mount Sinai Hospital, while Lloyd Sherman Scholars were placed in mentored research labs.
Jaileen Pierre-Louis, a Fruit Fly Genomics participant, shared her summer experience: “Over the course of the school year, I don’t get to participate as much in science. This program definitely reaffirmed my career preference by reminding me how much I love science.”