Class of 2025 medical student Ashwini Sarathy received the 2025 Larry Bellew Award for Volunteering from Champlain Community Services (CCS), a developmental services and health care provider for Vermonters with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The award was presented at a ceremony on April 24.

Throughout her time at the UVM Larner College of Medicine, Sarathy has volunteered for CCS creating and writing a blog called Let’s Talk About Health with Ash. Topics included tips for making healthy snacks, staying active on cold winter days, education about vaccines, and health screening recommendations.

Before attending medical school, Sarathy worked for organizations that provide health care to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and help them learn to take personal responsibility for their own well-being. That experience inspired her decision to pursue a medical degree, and to continue that work through her academic journey. 

“I am so excited to work with this wonderful community. I cherish the incredible relationships I have built over the past four years.” — Ashwini Sarathy ’25

One of those relationships is with Mike Reilly, the development coordinator for CCS. Reilly serves as a community mentor for medical students in a course called Public Health Projects, which matches learners with community service organizations to address social determinants of health. Students in the course work together to find creative ways to translate science into practice. Sarathy took this course during the spring semester of her first year of medical school. Her project group worked with CCS to examine barriers to understanding health care information among individuals with intellectual disabilities. The group presented its findings at the American Public Health Association’s Annual Conference in Boston in 2022.

During that time, Reilly learned that he has Parkinson’s disease. Sarathy volunteered to help Reilly understand his diagnosis and served as an ally at his first neurology appointment. 

“She vigorously researched Parkinson’s disease, and at my appointment she talked to me as a support and to my doctors as a colleague,” Reilly says. “A potentially terrifying visit was relaxed, almost fun. We even took selfies!”

After graduation, Sarathy will work as an otolaryngology resident physician at Montefiore Medical Center/Einstein Hospital in Bronx, New York.