A graduate student aspiring to be a doctor; a scientist who’s had an international impact in her field; and two new high school graduates are among this year’s recipients of Sinai Health System’s scholarships and bursaries. Employees, physicians, volunteers, scientists and family members gathered for a reception earlier this summer to celebrate their achievements and their dedication to learning and growing in their health care careers.
“The scholarships and bursaries we award every year recognize individuals who have shown their commitment to excellence and a drive to continue learning,” says Dr. Jaqueline James, Sinai Health’s Vice President of Education. “As an academic health care organization, education is an essential part of what we do and these awards encourage and support life-long learning.”
Get to know this year’s honourees:
Corey Kamen—Valerie Fine Bursary
Corey started out at Mount Sinai Hospital as a volunteer playing music on Mount Sinai Hospital’s Acute Care for Elders Unit. He’s currently pursuing a Master’s degree in clinical epidemiology while also working on research under the supervision of Dr. Christine Soong, Director of the Hospital Medicine Program at Sinai Health System and University Health Network. Corey is planning on going to medical school after completing his graduate studies.
In presenting Corey with the award, Joanne Fine Schwebel, Director of Volunteer and Interpreter Services noted that the Valerie Fine Bursary—an award named in honour of her late mother—is presented in recognition of excellence in patient care and a passion for doing good. Joanne said Corey exemplifies this in his volunteer work on the ACE unit where he “had a big impact in a short time and quickly became part of the team,” and also in his dedication to improving care for patients through research.
Jeyasakthi Venugopal—Rose Torno Bursary
The Rose Torono Bursary, named for the founding president of the Mount Sinai Hospital Auxiliary is awarded to encourage interest in research and health sciences education. This year’s recipient is Jeyasakthi Venugopal. In September, Jeyasakthi will be starting a master’s program in Public Health with a specialization in epidemiology at the Dala Lana School of Public Health. Jeyasakthi is committed to improving health equity and addressing stigma and injustice in the health-care system.
Dr. Julia Knight—Lloyd Fogler Award
Dr. Julia Knight, a senior investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute is this year’s recipient of the Lloyd Fogler Award recognizing an individual or group whose research has had international impact. Julia is an epidemiologist and her research is focused on increasing our understanding of the development and causes of breast cancer. So far, Julia has published more than 190 papers over the course of her career and has worked on large-scale international studies. She played a key role in the creation of the international Breast Cancer Family Registry, a study that has 30,000 participants from 12,000 families who are at increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer. In addition to her research, Julia is a professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
Diamond Jubilee Scholarships
The final two scholarships, the Diamond Jubilee scholarships, are awarded annually to children of Sinai Health System employees who are pursuing post-secondary education and have demonstrated excellence in academics, community service and leadership. This year’s awards recipients are both new high school graduates who plan to pursue careers in health care and have volunteered at Mount Sinai.
Isabelle Das Neves, is the daughter of Ingrid Musschenbroek of the Surgical Oncology Department. Isabelle says she’s looking forward to beginning her studies in kinesiology at York University. She plans to become a speech-language pathologist. Chethana Ellewela is the daughter of Dharshika Ellewela, a research assistant at the Zane Cohen Centre for Digestive Diseases. Chethana will start undergraduate studies in life sciences at McMaster University in the fall and plans to become a doctor.