Meet 2024 Award Recipient
Ava Jeanette Adler
Ava Adler came to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai through the FlexMed Early Assurance Program from Barnard College of Columbia University. At Barnard, she majored in Biology, graduated summa cum laude, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
While at Icahn, Ava has been involved in a variety of activities, including serving as a director for MedStart, a teacher for MedDOCs, a member of the Human Rights and Social Justice Program, an application screener for the ISMMS Admissions office, and a surgical skills course instructor. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she participated in efforts to get needed resources to the East Harlem community, volunteered to assist with monitoring COVID-19 vaccine recipients, and helped deliver meals to patients in the hospital. She also conducted research in the surgical field that resulted in publications and presentations at national surgical conferences. Over the course of her time at Icahn, Ava was elected as a class representative and has been a member of the ISMMS Executive Student Council, serving as secretary, vice president, and ultimately president in her final year.
Ava would like to thank her family, partner, friends, and classmates for their unwavering love and encouragement. She is grateful to the patients and families who have shown her the meaning and significance of being a physician. She also thanks the many faculty members among the leadership at Icahn for their invaluable advice and wisdom and those faculty members within the Surgery Department, including Dr. Michael Marin, Dr. Susan Lerner, Dr. Christina Weltz, Dr. Scott Nguyen, and Dr. Michael Leitman and countless other mentors for being models of the surgeon she aspires to become. She would like to specifically thank Dr. Celia Divino, her mentor and role model who has continuously provided support and inspiration since her first year of medical school.
Ava will graduate with her MD degree and is incredibly excited to be continuing her residency training in General Surgery at the Mount Sinai Hospital!