Medical Student Opportunities | Icahn School of Medicine

Medical Education students can engage in a dynamic range of training, service, and outreach programs to enhance their educational experience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

We pride ourselves on teamwork and collaboration from the very first day of school, and are one of the few schools that gives students the opportunity to interact with leadership at all levels. Our students can bring their concerns and suggestions to meetings with institutional leaders, learn firsthand about Icahn Mount Sinai’s vision and mission, and participate actively in helping us achieve that mission.

Beyond campus, our students engage with the surrounding community through clinical, educational, and research efforts, which include:

East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership: A free student-run health clinic serving uninsured residents of the East Harlem community.

MedDocs: A nine-week after-school program held twice each year in the fall and spring to teach high school students about the heart and lungs.

MedStart: A summer camp and academic year-round program offered to East Harlem middle school students interested in science and medicine.

Human Rights and Social Justice Scholars Program: A student-created program that enables selected students to participate in a course elective on health and human rights. Once selected, students are matched with a professional development mentor, and participate in various service-learning experiences with the goal of acquiring the skills they need to pursue social justice work in their medical careers.

Medical Mandarin: A student-run organization offering language and cultural competency education, which trains current and future health professionals to become better communicators and caregivers who understand the intricacies of Chinese cultural traditions and their impact on health care.

Medicina en Espanol: Available to first and second-year medical students, this program offers three separate course modules, each with three language proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced). The subjects of the Spanish language courses parallel what students are learning in their medical training.

Mount Sinai Human Rights Program: A program that provides integrated, pro-bono medical care and social services to survivors of torture, as well as to asylum seekers to the United States, the Mount Sinai Human Rights Program is dedicated to a world united against the inhumane treatment of people.

Racism and Bias Initiative: A transformational change initiative aimed at explicitly addressing and undoing racism and bias in all areas of medical school and centering racial justice, equity, and underrepresented voices and experiences of our medical education peers and colleagues.

Affinity Groups: Student-centered affinity groups are a way for communities of students to be linked by a common purpose, self-identifying attribute, commitment, or belief. The overarching mission for affinity groups at Icahn Mount Sinai is to provide a safe space for all participants to identify salient issues and common concerns through dialogue and programming. Our goal is to strengthen the sense of belonging within the larger Icahn Mount Sinai community, and to support individual voices in bringing about affirmation, fellowship, and connection.

Awards and Honor Societies

At Icahn Mount Sinai, we assess your performance in clinical, research, and community outreach settings, which frequently lead to recognition through awards and acceptance to honor societies. Opportunities for scholarly acknowledgment include the following.

Recognizes students who have distinguished themselves by their humanism, which the Gold Foundation defines as "those attributes and behaviors that emanate from a deep sensitivity and respect for others, including full acceptance of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds," and "is exemplified through compassionate, empathetic treatment of all persons." Peer nomination happens at the end of the third year and selection takes place in August.

Dr. Arthur H. Aufses, Sr. Prize in Surgery
Given to a student entering the field of general surgery or a surgical subspecialty who has demonstrated excellence in surgical clerkship.

Dr. Barry Coller Award
Awarded to a graduating student entering internal medicine who has shown excellence and professionalism in the clinical realm.

Mrs. David A. Dreiling Surgery Prize in Memory of her mother, Florence L. Oppenheimer,
given to a student going into a surgical subspecialty, noting scholarly efforts.

The Eugene W. Friedman, MD, Prize for Clinical Excellence
Awarded to a graduating student who will continue their residency at The Mount Sinai Hospital in general surgery and shows promise of exemplary clinical skills.

Dr. John Bookman Memorial Prize
Recognizes excellence in academic achievement for a student specializing in internal medicine, with an optional focus in diabetes or nutrition.

Milton C. Engel, MD, Award in Geriatric Medicine
Conferred on a graduating student who has excelled in geriatric medicine.

Ellen Parker Memorial Award for Outstanding Community Service in Geriatrics
Given to a student who has demonstrated initiative and ingenuity in improving the quality of life of older adults in disadvantaged communities.

James Felt Memorial Prize for Highest Overall Standing
Awarded to the student who has displayed the highest all-around performance throughout medical school.

The Distinction in Medical Education recognizes students who have taken leadership roles in medical education and have developed and implemented a scholarly project related to the field of medical education. It focuses on students who have dedicated significant time to, and demonstrated excellence in, teaching, mentoring, education administration, curriculum development or assessment, or who have taken a scholarly approach to their work in education.

The Distinction in Research is awarded to students who publish a peer-reviewed manuscript on which they are the first author, or who submit a first-author manuscript that is judged to be of publication quality by an ad-hoc Distinction in Research Committee.

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