#8 Swathi Srinivasan: Rhodes Scholar on Combatting Public Health Inequality with Compassion, Lessons from Cancer Diagnosis, and Much More |
January 17, 2021 // LISTEN HERE
Meet Swathi Srinivasan.
In this episode I had the pleasure of chatting with Swathi Srinivasan, a senior at Harvard from Cleveland Ohio studying Social Studies, the History of Science, and Chemistry. And over her college career, Swathi's dedication to helping solve critically important public health equity challenges through addressing social and economic issues has earned her a Rhodes Scholarship. Now that is no joke. Considered by many to be the most prestigious post-graduate award in the world, being a Rhodes Scholar will give Swathi the unprecedented resources and platform to make the change she wishes to see in the world. And in this conversation, you'll hopefully hear why I think the selection committee made an incredible choice.
In this conversation, Swathi outlines how following what she cares deeply about has led her to put a lot on her plate, but at the same time stay motivated through it all. She's worked for UN-AIDS in Geneva to understand the solutions at the international level to address HIV and AIDS. She's the head the Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government where her criminal justice and environmental policy teams were turned into classes. She's worked with Massachusetts government and travelled internationally to do field research to address the opioid epidemic and more recently, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, most recently, Swathi has been working on developing a cancer chemotherapy with reduced side effects as a second thesis (on top of her thesis on COVID-19 in Brazil for Social Studies) for the chemistry department... and this is a research question she is intimately interested in since being diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma and going through chemotherapy herself during the winter and spring of 2020.
But Swathi is so much more than just what she's done. While she cares deeply about helping marginalized populations disproportionately impacted by public health issues, she has also recognized and reflected upon the importance of taking care of herself... and offers the mindset she sees the twists and turns of her life through plus the ways she recharges her batteries to allow her to be so impactful in the projects she takes on.
This conversation not only taught me a lot, but also inspired me to think about just how much positive impact an individual can have when tackling questions we care deeply about. I hope this conversation about science, social issues, and both navigating and learning from challenges does the same for you. Please enjoy.
SHOW NOTES
In this episode I had the pleasure of chatting with Swathi Srinivasan, a senior at Harvard from Cleveland Ohio studying Social Studies, the History of Science, and Chemistry. And over her college career, Swathi's dedication to helping solve critically important public health equity challenges through addressing social and economic issues has earned her a Rhodes Scholarship. Now that is no joke. Considered by many to be the most prestigious post-graduate award in the world, being a Rhodes Scholar will give Swathi the unprecedented resources and platform to make the change she wishes to see in the world. And in this conversation, you'll hopefully hear why I think the selection committee made an incredible choice.
In this conversation, Swathi outlines how following what she cares deeply about has led her to put a lot on her plate, but at the same time stay motivated through it all. She's worked for UN-AIDS in Geneva to understand the solutions at the international level to address HIV and AIDS. She's the head the Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government where her criminal justice and environmental policy teams were turned into classes. She's worked with Massachusetts government and travelled internationally to do field research to address the opioid epidemic and more recently, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, most recently, Swathi has been working on developing a cancer chemotherapy with reduced side effects as a second thesis (on top of her thesis on COVID-19 in Brazil for Social Studies) for the chemistry department... and this is a research question she is intimately interested in since being diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma and going through chemotherapy herself during the winter and spring of 2020.
But Swathi is so much more than just what she's done. While she cares deeply about helping marginalized populations disproportionately impacted by public health issues, she has also recognized and reflected upon the importance of taking care of herself... and offers the mindset she sees the twists and turns of her life through plus the ways she recharges her batteries to allow her to be so impactful in the projects she takes on.
This conversation not only taught me a lot, but also inspired me to think about just how much positive impact an individual can have when tackling questions we care deeply about. I hope this conversation about science, social issues, and both navigating and learning from challenges does the same for you. Please enjoy.
SHOW NOTES
- Books
- Quotes & Mantras
- "What man can make, man can unmake" - Frederick Douglass
- "Don't close a door that isn't open"