Queen’s student receives recognition award from the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame

What does it mean to be recognized in the healthcare community? 

To Adam Mosa, Med ‘18, it means acknowledgment for his hard work up to this point, and encouragement to keep going.

Mosa was recognized this month as a future leader of the healthcare field by the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

The award, only in its second year of existence, is given to 17 students country-wide and includes both a monetary award and a recognition for each student.

To be considered for the award, there’s an application process in which the candidate must demonstrate evidence of “perseverance, collaboration and an entrepreneurial spirit,” Mosa said.

Mosa graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor’s degree in biology and philosophy, and completed his master’s in physiology at the University of Toronto before coming to Queen’s.

Throughout Mosa’s post-secondary years prior to medical school, he spent time working as a private tutor, research assistant and a teaching assistant. He’s now in his third year at Queen’s.

His time here, he said, has helped him as a student largely by providing “fantastic” mentors.

“Andrea Winthrop has been my supervisor and mentor for my work on communications skills research, and on medical education,” he said.

“Also Jacalyn Duffin, who is our history of medicine professor, really helped me to explore my interests in the history of medicine.”

Mosa further explained there’s a good base at Queen’s for communication between students and faculty, and he feels as if his feedback genuinely matters here.

“Beyond those two people, Queen’s itself has a really supportive environment for medical education research,” Mosa said. After medical school, he hopes to pursue a surgical career.

The competition to get into medical school is tough, he noted, and always has been. However, for him, determination and hard work played an important role in actually getting in.

“Some of the people who I find to be the most thoughtful, competent and impressive colleagues of mine did not have a straight path,” Mosa said.

“People told me not to apply to medical school simply on the basis of one or two semesters of grades and on the lack of creativity about [how] I could bridge the gap between my current state and my first day of medical school.”

Exposure within the healthcare sector and a lifetime of hard work are going to help individuals to [be] more likely to get into medical school, Mosa said. “Hard work is really just the starting point.”