Ziad is an incoming MD student at Harvard Medical School in August 2021. He was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, and graduated from Columbia University in the City of New York in Spring 2021 with a BS in biomedical engineering. One of Ziad’s passions includes learning different languages, and he speaks 8 languages. During his time in New York City, Ziad merged his skills in languages and his passion for medicine by working as a medical interpreter. As an interpreter at Mount Sinai, Ziad worked with non-English speaking immigrant communities of New York to help them overcome linguistic barriers and receive more equitable care. Working as a medical interpreter with the Immigrants Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, Ziad also worked with political refugees during medical and psychiatric evaluations to help them apply for asylum in the United States. In the semester before joining Harvard, Ziad has also worked as an interpreter and volunteer in the vaccination pods at Mount Sinai.</p><p>Ziad’s interest in medicine is also linked to research and engineering. Merging engineering and medicine, he worked for two summers at Owkin, a biotechnology startup in New York that uses artificial intelligence and deep learning to find quantitative solutions to medical challenges. For example, in the summer of 2020, Ziad started the first worldwide open COVID-19 AI consortium, partnering with research organizations to find AI-driven solutions to COVID-19 challenges. Talk to Ziad if you have questions about financial aid at medical schools, medical school experience and more!