Insider Insights: Meet Public Health Major Kena Desai
One Texas Science senior shares insights about study abroad and more with newer-to-campus peers.
Kena Desai, a senior public health major, signs the Peace Wall in Northern Ireland during a recent study abroad trip. Photos courtesy of Kena Desai.
Every summer growing up, Kena Desai and her family traveled to India. But in the summer of 2018, amidst the usual fun of visiting relatives and trying local delicacies, she interned with a nonprofit in Gujarat, India, called United Way of Baroda. Through surveying preschools called anganwadis, Desai got her first introduction to the world of public health.
“I created a data analysis report on vaccination rates, the hygiene of the facility, their access to literacy resources and more,” Desai said. “I loved working with those populations and learning about health.”
Now a senior majoring in public health and international business, Desai said her classes at UT have helped her learn about health from a more holistic perspective.
In her Global Health in Action course, Desai and her group worked with a Nicaraguan nonprofit called Project Schoolhouse to provide educational, culturally relevant worksheets to support after-school programs focused on increasing literacy. With extra funds from one of her group member’s University Co-op Course Material Scholarship, her team bought school supplies that were sent to Project Schoolhouse.
“Especially as an international business and public health major, global health is something I really care about,” Desai said.
After graduation, Desai hopes to attend medical school and be involved in advocacy or the business side of health care in addition to providing clinical care.
“Public health has helped prepare me for seeing medicine not just in a clinical light or even the scientific aspects, but with more of a broader perspective,” Desai said. “As a public health major, you get to use a lot of the things you’re learning in classes in your day-to-day life and learn about issues affecting our country and the world.”
Desai said her majors complement each other as her business degree helped her hone the soft skills that will allow her to be successful in medicine.
“You get to learn how to be confident during presentations, which is something you’re going to need on rounds,” Desai said. “You’re more unapologetic about reaching out to professionals and making connections within the industry.”
This summer, Desai blended her passion for public health with her other interests by traveling to Ireland through funding from the President’s Award for Global Learning.
“Northern Ireland had a war in the 1980s and 90s called the ‘Troubles,’ which left a lot of PTSD in the people alive today. Our project is looking at what they’re doing now to recover from that,” Desai said. “I’m looking at trauma-informed design at clinics and hospitals and looking at how associations with nature, color and space are used to create a healing environment for patients and employees.”
While Desai has explored the variety of programs UT offers, her heart lies in public health.
“I think public health majors are unique because we genuinely went into this wanting to help and make a difference in our community from the healthcare perspective,” Desai said. “I’m grateful for that empathetic background and that desire to make an impact.”
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