During his time in the School of Medicine, Alan Amedi prioritized service and leadership while maintaining a demanding academic load and engaging in research and scholarship. Now, he’s been named the graduate student recipient of the Marion Luther Brittain Award, considered the highest honor presented to an Emory University student.
“I’m so grateful for everyone who has taken a chance on me. I want to pay it forward and give others the opportunities that I was given,” says Amedi. “I love seeing other students succeed and reach their goals.”
As a first-generation, low-income student, Amedi feared medical school was a distant dream, despite inspiration from his uncle who served as a medic during war, attending to and saving the lives of Kurds amid persecution and violence. Through mentorship from Heval Kelli, a physician and refugee himself (as well as a former Emory resident and cardiology fellow), Amedi saw there was a realistic, if difficult, path to medical school. After graduating from Georgia State University, Amedi worked for two years to support his family and fund his application process to medical school.
This fall, Amedi will head west to begin his residency in general surgery at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, California.