Alumni
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Priya Trivedi
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Priya was first empowered to serve marginalized communities in her high school community, where a heavy emphasis on leadership and service-learning led her to explore what being a servant leader truly meant, and how she could use it to influence positive social change. Through her efforts in youth leadership development, equal access and opportunities, and women’s rights, she learned sustainable service couldn’t exist without cultural responsibility, humility, and genuine relationship building.
During her first three years at Vanderbilt, Priya served with several Nashville community partners and learned that the meaning of service and her ability to create a positive impact are ever changing. Working alongside several immigrant and refugee rights organizations, she learned how the power of a single narrative could shape a new future for several individuals in our nation. Engaging in advocacy work for the rights of racial and ethnic minorities, she learned her duty as an active citizen to use her own privilege to create and open up opportunities for those who may not share the same. By teaching and mentoring youth through several health and financial literacy programs, she established that sharing knowledge and information is a principal tool in empowering disadvantaged communities to have agency over their own advocacy and advancement.
Through her involvement with the Ingram program, Priya spent two months in Chanchamayo, Perú, partnering with the Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children to develop regional healthcare reform. Pain points were identified by the community as lack of service capabilities to meet local demand, a desire for more public health outreach, and limited financial literacy and insurance knowledge to support healthcare needs. Priya designed a plan in conjunction with hospital staff to reallocate resources across the hospital and open up more rooms where necessary. She also led a team of interns to improve community health, resulting in 300+ free eye exams and the distribution of 2000 prescription glasses and 500+ original health information brochures across 5 native communities. She also began delivering financial literacy presentations in native communities, and developed guides for low-income citizens to navigate the health insurance application process. Eight weeks immersed in the Chanchamayan health care system inspired Priya to focus her life’s efforts on increasing access and affordability to quality health care globally, specifically for marginalized populations.
In the future, Priya wishes to develop robust skills in the area of health care policy, business management, strategy, and finance, in order to better understand how our national health care system and its various stakeholders can provide for the underserved. Priya’s long-term mindset is set on policy change and structural reform to create sustainable social improvements, but she believes one can only successfully tackle institutional change once they have seen issues at the grassroots level.
Priya is honored and grateful to have a place among such an incredible group of current and past Ingram scholars – one that keeps her humble, inspired, and fearless. No amount of gratitude can repay all the knowledge, opportunities, and compassion that the people in this program have given her.