Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center (SMSC) and the Central California Alliance for Health (the Alliance) have named Cecilia Im as the recipient of the tenth annual Primary Care Physician Award. Im graduated from UC Santa Cruz in June 2016 with a B.S. degree in neuroscience.
“Cecilia excels in academic performance and in her volunteer contributions to the community,” said Stephen Gray, SMSC chief administrative officer. “She is the ideal choice for this year’s primary care scholarship award, and we wish her well in her pursuits in medical school.”
Im was raised in Orange County and began her undergraduate career at UC Santa Cruz in 2012. She excelled academically and conducted undergraduate research projects ranging from fungal cell biology (with Barry Bowman, professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology) to blood stem cells (with Camilla Forsberg, professor of biomolecular engineering). Im served as social vice president and academic advisor for Kappa Gamma Delta and was recently awarded the Stephen Palais Memorial Award for Undergraduate Research. She volunteered as a scribe for the RotaCare Community Clinic in Mountain View and as the volunteer coordinator for the Santa Cruz County Medical Reserve Corps. She is currently applying to medical schools.
The $10,000 annual scholarship was established by SMSC and the Alliance in conjunction with the UC Santa Cruz Foundation to help carry out a mission to provide high-quality primary care to Central Coast Medi-Cal patients. The award supports a graduating UCSC senior who will be entering an accredited medical school, and the recipient must intend to return to the Central Coast to practice in primary care.
Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center is part of the Sutter Health network.
