Elmont Graduate Becomes a Doctor, Triumphs in the Face of Sickle-Cell Disease

Meet Melissa Jackson.

Melissa graduated from Elmont Memorial High School in 2006. After graduating, Melissa attended the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at the City College of New York, where she was a Jackie Robinson scholarship award recipient from 2006-2010.

Melissa graduated magna cum laude from Sophie Davis and was accepted into Dartmouth Medical School. She then graduated from Dartmouth in 2013 at age 24. Following medical school, Melissa completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at Brown University.

In July of 2016, Melissa completed her residency and passed her boards, so is now board certified in Internal Medicine at age 28. She was recently accepted into a Gastroenterology Fellowship at Albany Medical Center, where Melissa will complete her intensive training in gastroenterology in July 2019.

Melissa says that the road to success has been very challenging. She has sickle cell disease and is hospitalized every few months.

Even though Melissa is upstate, she says her family still lives in Elmont, including her younger sister who is an 8th-grade student.

Melissa told us that if her story could help inspire or motivate anyone, especially current students, she would love to share it.

Thank you for sharing your story with us, Melissa. You are truly an inspiration to us all. #WeAreElmont