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Sona Desai

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Finalist

General information

Hobbies & Interests

  • Art
  • Dance
  • Politics and Political Science
  • Science
  • Engineering
  • Research
  • Neuroscience
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Health Sciences
  • Medicine
  • FFA

Reading

  • Fantasy
  • Politics
  • Science Fiction
  • Romance
  • Adult Fiction
  • Classics
  • Cookbooks

I read books multiple times a month.

Bio

I have always been passionate about creating a better world through medicine and social justice. As I embark to start Vanderbilt Medical School this Fall, I hope to participate in outreach and learn skills to become a better physician. In my career, I aspire to bridge the gap between the medical treatment of men and women. In my research, I learned that many times women receive less than adequate treatment over men, which can be due to implicit or outward bias against women in the healthcare system. I would generally describe myself as someone who is driven and hard-working, as I want to help create a fairer and kinder world through future community service and my occupation as a physician.

Education

Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus

Bachelor's degree program

2021 – 2025

Majors:
  • Biomedical/Medical Engineering

Wheeler High School

High School

2017 – 2021

Miscellaneous

Desired degree level:
Doctoral degree program (PhD, MD, JD, etc.)
Majors of interest:
Biomedical/Medical Engineering
Medical school interest:
Yes

Career

  • Teaching Assistant- The Art of Telling Your Story

    Education · Georgia Institute of Technology

    Jan 2025 – Jan 2025

  • Teaching Assistant- Physiology, Cell & Molecular Biology

    Education · Georgia Institute of Technology

    Jan 2024 – Jan 2024

Miscellaneous

Dream career field:
Hospital & Health Care
Dream career goals:
Attending Physician
Has nursing license:
No

Future Interests

  • Advocacy
  • Politics
  • Volunteering
  • Philanthropy
  • Entrepreneurship
Sweet Dreams Scholarship
As a woman in Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT), a large part of my experience has been battling the all-too-common “imposter syndrome.” Stepping into massive lecture halls, and learning about how to code and build circuits truly confounded me. But, I still persevered. I knew I was chosen to be at this institution for a reason, so I attended office hours, studied with peers, and leveraged tutoring provided by the instructional team to ensure I was gaining a solid foundation. Through this, I made some of my best friends who were other women in the male-dominated field of engineering. Together we traversed through difficult lecture material and built each other up when we failed and triumphed. Tears and laughs connected me to this female engineering community, giving me a sense of comfort for my future as an undergraduate student. These women were whom I would turn to for all types of problems, and they ensured I was okay after setbacks in my career exploration. Truly, these women showed me that the idea of sisterhood continues to live on, especially in areas where women’s voices are seemingly less. At the end of my sophomore year, I wanted to utilize my engineering education to support the community of women who had supported me. After getting my period, and having to search through multiple bathrooms on campus which all supposedly offer free products, then finding the dispensers empty, I was frustrated. I teamed up with three of my peers to develop an all-female-founded start-up to increase access to free menstrual products on campus. Through intensive usability studies, we found a key pain point at Georgia Tech (GT): many women on campus do not know of these free products available to them, or, when in search of the product, have found the dispensers empty. I was not the only one who had this frustration, and like how my friends in engineering had done for me, I didn’t want these women to feel alone in their struggle. I learned the importance of active listening, tangible connection, and genuine care for others through these user conversations. To tackle this issue, after multiple iterations, my team and I devised a weight-based sensor that could track menstrual product levels in the bathrooms and update a website notifying anyone of the stock level anywhere on campus. The late nights spent working on our prototype, and the no’s that we got from administration, only pushed us harder to deliver something for those struggling on campus. This experience truly taught me the importance of perseverance, as I learned to take rejection in stride building up our product. To this day, we have raised over $3,600 in support of our start-up. What began as a way to increase access to menstrual products became a passion project to improve women’s overall health and well-being at GT. As someone who once felt unsure of their place in engineering, the community of women within this major showed me that there will always be people to lift you up in a world where women are still fighting to be seen as equal to their male counterparts. Whether it is helping improve access to menstrual products or building life-saving medical devices, I will continue to uplift women in our nation and bring comfort to those who are struggling—sustaining the hope that communities built on compassion and resilience can drive lasting change.
Women in Healthcare Scholarship
At 17 years old, Serena Williams introduced me to my chosen career. In a magazine article pinned up in my pediatrician’s office, the tennis star described how she was denied treatment during her pregnancy, largely due to her pain not being taken seriously. It was confusing, and I wondered how many others had been ignored, too. I delved into research regarding this “implicit bias” phenomenon against women in healthcare. I learned how diseases, from endometriosis to almost unknown ones like vulvodynia, have been under-researched. I also discovered similar stories from the female figures in my life. My best friend’s excruciating pelvic pains were diagnosed as menstrual cramps but ended up being endometriosis. My mother felt lost and confused once diagnosed with gestational diabetes. These stories would survive in my head days after hearing them, becoming my motivation to be a physician. In college, I volunteered at Peachtree Women’s Clinic as a medical assistant and scribe. Early on, I recall a woman who hated the sight of her blood. To ease her mind, I asked about her weekend during the finger prick to check her hemoglobin. Seeing her face flush back with color made me feel the impact of just listening. Discussing her past medical history, a word grabbed my attention: vulvodynia. I hadn’t heard it in three years, but her story was all too familiar. She saw over ten doctors to receive a diagnosis, which was the eventual cause of her divorce. This story echoed my conversations with my mother and best friend, confirming I was in the right place to pursue my healthcare interest. After two years of working at Peachtree Women’s Clinic, leading the healthcare team, actively listening, and conducting research on women’s health would be both a dream and a privilege. The impact I hope to make as a future female physician is to advocate for improved women's health and reproductive justice while furthering research on the female body and the misunderstood diseases that afflict it. This would become a reality if I were awarded the Women In Healthcare Scholarship (WIHS) which would help cover the expenses of my medical school tuition. At the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM), I will apply my experience as the founder and President of the Planned Parenthood Chapter at Georgia Institute of Technology to Medical Students for Choice. Here, I will collaborate with local pro-choice organizations to better incorporate reproductive rights and sexual education within medical school curricula. Additionally, to expand upon my research goals, I will utilize VUSM’s Clinical Applications of Scientific Evidence in my first year, exploring current literature on women’s health and its intersection with current healthcare policy and research funding. Here, I can advocate for women in our nation's healthcare system through discovery. In the long term, I will join the American Medical Women’s Association and become involved in health equity policy. I can meet with senators and staffers on bills I propose regarding women’s health policy and funding--shaping equitable and accessible care for women in our nation. Finally, I will collaborate with professors and other physicians to improve current knowledge of women’s health and disease through research. Current topics that are of interest to me involve healthcare disparities, gynecological cancers, endometriosis, and vulvodynia. In my mission to uplift female voices as a doctor, I aim to improve women’s health while continuously listening to their lives—goals that WIHS would support on my path to becoming a physician in medical school. As a future physician-researcher and physician-advocate, I would ensure women felt heard, listened to, and prioritized throughout their care.
SkipSchool Scholarship
Rosalind Franklin was someone who not only impactfully contributed to the field of genetics but worked to do so in a time when women were scarcely in STEM. As an overshadowed trailblazer during her career, I have the greatest and utmost respect for someone who still pursued what she loved even when it wasn't anywhere near the "norm." As an aspiring physician who hopes to reduce the implicit bias against women in the healthcare industry, I aim to harness her same tenacity and spirit to be a woman in STEM.
Cynthia Lennon Scholarship for Girls
Amplify Women in STEM Scholarship
I have always been inspired by the work of Rosalind Franklin. She was a woman who pioneered in the field of genetics and discovered the unique double helix structure of DNA. She was able to overcome the stigma of a working woman in her time and used her extensive intelligence to break boundaries by shattering the glass ceiling. An inspiration herself, I hope to become a similar figure for young girls in my work as a physician. This past summer, I found a calling for my future as a doctor. The Black Lives Matter movement lit a spark for social change, causing many to think introspectively about inequality towards various groups. I decided I wanted to learn more about how gender still has an alarming influence on treatments in healthcare globally. I was astounded to find out that situations still occur in which women are under prescribed medicine or denied care because doctors implicitly or outwardly believe that women “over exaggerate” their symptoms. Through my research, I learned this bias is rooted in the idea that women suffer from “hysteria,” a post-Freud belief that had many believing women hyperbolized their symptoms. As someone who aspires to pursue medicine, I firmly believe in bridging the gap in treatment between men and women, be it through outreach in underprivileged countries or through community service right here at home in the United States.
Sona Desai Student Profile | Bold.org