Ada Chung

Ada is originally from Palo Alto, California. She began her classical ballet training at the age of 5 and later trained pre-professionally at the Ramon Moreno School of Ballet in Palo Alto where she has performed roles such as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Kitri, and Swanhilda. Ada competed at the World Ballet Competition in 2018 and spent her summers training with the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and Joffrey Ballet School.

Ada then went on to study Political Science and Disability Studies at UCLA. During undergrad, she worked as a Clinic Assistant at the UCLA Child and Adult Neurodevelopmental Center. At UCLA, she conducted research on health equity, immigrant health, and developmental disabilities. There she founded the UCLA Ballet Company and taught ballet classes to other undergraduate students.

She is now a first-year medical student at the Yale School of Medicine where she is interested in a surgical specialty. At the Yale School of Medicine, she leads the Yale Center for Asylum Medicine and serves as an Advisory member for the Yale Health Equity Curriculum Thread. Ada is deeply passionate about using medicine and policy to advocate for inclusive healthcare systems, with a particular focus on asylum health and disability health. She is also passionate about female representation in surgical fields. Other activities she is involved with at Yale include the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association and Socially Responsible Surgery.

Having been a pre-professional dancer for most of her life, Ada is excited to be a mentor for Second Act to share her transition from dancing rigorously in high school to her medical career with others.