Medical Student Internship Program
Meet Our 2017 Interns
Learn more about our interns and read their academic and/or public pieces they worked on this summer.
Ammar Ahmed
MS4 University of Liverpool
Liverpool, United Kingdom
Ammar Ahmed is a UK-based fourth year medical student at the University of Liverpool (medicine is typically undertaken as a 5-year undergraduate course in the UK). His research endeavours at medical school have explored worldwide neonatal health inequalities, primary healthcare access among migrants and the role of the CCR5-Δ32 mutation in both HIV transmission and breast cancer. During the next academic year, he also hopes to pursue an intercalated research Master’s (MRes) at his current university’s Institute of Translational Medicine. While at II&M, he aspires to gain a foundational grounding in Islamic bioethics and contribute to the wider bioethical academic discourse, with a view to ultimately responding to ethical dilemmas from a faith-centric perspective during his future clinical practice.
Usman Baqai
MS1 Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Usman Baqai completed his bachelor of science (honors) from Ursinus College in 2017, double majoring in Biology and Applied Ethics. In the fall of 2017, he will be starting his medical education as part of the MD/PhD program at Sidney Kimmel Medical College – Thomas Jefferson University. He hopes to learn more about how faith and spirituality can either benefit or come in the way of Muslim patients’ health care.
Rosie Duivenbode
MS4 University Medical Center Utrecht
Utrecht, Netherlands
Rosie Duivenbode is traveling to Chicago from the Netherlands. She has a bachelor degree in biomedical sciences and religious studies from University College Roosevelt. Currently, she is pursuing a joint medical and clinical research degree at the University Medical Center Utrecht. Rosie is grateful to combine her passion for both medicine and religious studies in her research, which focuses on the medical decision-making of Muslim patients and possibilities for Advance Care Planning. During her time at the Initiative of Islam and Medicine she hopes to acquire a solid understanding of the normative bioethical frameworks and further develop herself as an academic researcher. In addition to the academic piece she produced on female genital cutting, Rosie also wrote an op-ed reflecting on the language we use to discuss reproductive ethics which you can read here..
Zamaan Sohel
MS2 University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL
Zamaan Sohel is a medical student at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Medicine. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics & Computer Science at UIC, where he was also privileged to conduct research on the impacts of community garden programs on youth in the city of Chicago. He is inspired by the many rich traditions which comprise the field of medicine, such as that of the Muslim hakims who derived many of their principles from prophetic teachings. At the Initiative on Islam and Medicine, he hopes to begin building a foundation rooted in the bioethical discourse of the Islamic tradition and thereby better understand how tradition is brought to life on the contemporary scene to address modern day quandaries within medicine in a principled and balanced way.