08/13/2025
While volunteering in a Manhattan shelter as a college student, Stephanie Niño de Rivera made a special connection with a mother and her six-year-old daughter from Peru, where the little girl was born with a serious heart defect.
With Stephanie guiding them to Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, the girl received life-changing surgery from our pediatric cardiology team. She was with the pair each step of the way, serving as their interpreter, advocate and friend.
“It was such a beautiful thing to see her mom open up and find her voice and talk about the things she needed,” Stephanie recalls, adding that the girl still thrives today.
Now, Stephanie is ready to step into her next role as a medical student in the Class of 2029 and marked the start of her journey at our annual White Coat Ceremony.
“I have so much gratitude to be in this position,” she says. “A patient will see me in a white coat and see someone like them. I want to learn their stories.”
Stephanie has been a voice for others since an early age. Growing up in Houston as the daughter of Mexican immigrants, Stephanie would translate for her parents at doctors’ appointments and later volunteered as a bilingual translator at clinics.
“Those experiences really made me feel like I had a purpose,” she says. She is also inspired by her parents, who always emphasized academics with Stephanie and her two sisters, one of whom became the first physician in their family.
That drive to succeed led Stephanie to our Summer Research Fellowship, which provides research and clinical experiences to college students interested in medicine. The support she received from program director Dr. Joy Howell convinced her to apply to Weill Cornell Medicine.
“To be in an environment where mentorship and support is important, it’s amazing,” she says.
In addition to an interest in cardiology and pediatrics, Stephanie is passionate about ethics-focused research and deepening her understanding of the barriers patients face.
“I want to be a trusted figure for my patients in moments of uncertainty, fear, and illness and become the doctor who listens, stands beside her patients and makes sure they know they matter.”
