Spotlight on iCons Alumna, Angela Essa '17

UMass iCons alumna, Angela Essa '17, was recently featured in UMass Medical School's Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Student Spotlight series for her work studying diet and hypertension in pregnant women.

Excerpt from story:

Understanding, treating and preventing disease has interested Angela Essa, SOM ’23, for years. She was intrigued by human anatomy and physiology classes from high school through her undergraduate years at UMass Amherst. She got involved in laboratory research early on, participating in honors-level programs that placed her in engaging, hands-on projects.

“I’ve always been really curious about medicine and the biology of disease and how we treat it,” said Essa. “That was something I tried to explore as much as possible. I really enjoy thinking about ways to solve different global programs from an interdisciplinary standpoint.”

Read more from the UMass Medical School Communications release.

News Highlights

UMass iCons Program Sparks Creative Thinking to Address Student Anxiety

On October 22, 2024, the UMass iCons Program hosted the annual Idea Slam. This event urges students to think creatively and collaboratively to hypothesize potential solutions to real-world issues, with a particular focus this year on addressing the epidemic of student anxiety. Presentations delivered by thought leaders Dr. Melissa Rotkiewicz, the director of the UMass Amherst Center for Counseling and Psychological Health (CCPH), and Brian Pearson, the founder of Adventure East, prepared participants for the issue at hand: the epidemic of student anxiety.

In 2016, Marinna Teixeira graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in Environmental Sciences and a minor in French. Having emigrated from Brazil at a young age, Marinna was the first woman in her family to graduate from university and has achieved profound accomplishments since. After joining the UMass iCons Program as a freshman, she befriended peers who dreamed of professional accomplishments like hers. As a member of the third iCons cohort, the Third Axis, her participation in the undergraduate program fell under the Renewable Energy track where she pursued her interest in climate change mitigation.

Heather Bortolussi '24 and Fay Paicos '24, both recent graduates of the Environmental Science program and the UMass iCons Program at UMass Amherst, discovered that an iCons classroom is not just the beginning of a professional toolkit but a gateway to enriching experiences beyond academia. Their journey began in an iCons 2 classroom, where their teamwork sparked a friendship that extended far beyond those four walls, taking them all the way to Thailand for a study abroad adventure.

Spotlight on iCons Alumna, Angela Essa '17

Stay Connected