Ava Jassey

## History

Ava was born on February 6, 1999, in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Ava was adopted from Bulgaria to Seattle when she was two years old. Her parents did little to immerse her in her culture, though she remembers being told by extended family that she was rescued from an undesirable country. She did not begin to learn about her culture until she was in college, when she was living apart from her parents and no longer had to 'worry about hurting their feelings' by them finding out. She taught herself Bulgarian and began learning several recipes.

As a child, Ava was extremely socially awkward. Despite this awkwardness she was exceedingly bright, and her parents paid for her to have every advantage money could buy. She attended Milton Academy, though as an adult she realized she was not ready to leave home. In her free time in high school, she curated several Tumblr blogs, with many of her posts gaining notable levels of traction.

Ava attended Smith College for her undergraduate years, where she majored in Neuroscience and minored in the History of Science. As an undergraduate, Ava largely kept to herself, focusing on performing well in school and studying for her MCAT, on which she received a score of 527. Ava attended the University of Pennsylvania as a medical student. During her time as a medical student, she considered psychiatry and oncology as specialties before deciding on surgery as she liked working with her hands and spending too much time talking to patients made her nervous.

During her second year of surgical residency in Chicago, Ava's parents informed her that a spot in her class, which had once belonged to Ulrich Rauler, had opened at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital and that she should try to rematch there. Though she was initially hesitant, not wanting to leave her current program, Ava eventually caved in out of a desire to make her parents happy.

When she moved back to Seattle, Ava's parents left shortly after to travel the world, leaving her in charge of their house. Claire and Kallik were thrilled when they discovered Ava was seeking roommates and promptly applied for the empty rooms in her house.

While applying for fellowships, Ava was offered an interview at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which thrilled her. She interviewed as soon as possible, and was initially overjoyed that the interview had gone well, before realizing that being offered a spot at Northwestern would mean leaving her first real group of friends. Claire and Kallik urged her to make a decision for herself as opposed to basing her choice on what others would want, and this encouragement led Ava to ranking Northwestern as her first choice. She was then offered and accepted a surgical oncology fellowship.

## Relationships

Ava is an only child. Her parents met and married in their late thirties and didn't have any other children.

## Career

After graduating in the top quartile of her class in medical school, Ava matched into her top choice program, which was a surgical residency at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She only chose to take the open spot at Seattle Grace Mercy West after persuasion from her parents.

## Notes and Trivia

* She is an Aquarius Sun and Libra Moon. She does not know her exact time of birth as she was adopted and many records were not kept.