Amazing Student: Rahul Shah

Augusta native and double Franklin major (A.B. economics, B.S. biology) has been involved in research, as well as many other activities, since he started at UGA:

Since my first semester here at UGA, I have been involved with the Roosevelt Institute, a national student policy think tank with chapters at over 100 universities across the country. Working with Roosevelt, I have conducted policy research with faculty members in a variety of disciplines, including public health, economics and education. I’ve conducted research on the economic feasibility and public health implications of a large-scale implementation of needle exchange programs to address Russia’s HIV epidemic, presenting this work at the UGA CURO Symposium in the spring of my freshman year. My sophomore year, I focused on something closer to home: the educational disparity between English learners and native English speakers in Georgia schools. My policy solution was that Georgia should subsidize the implementation of dual-language immersion programs in public schools in districts with a large percentage of English learners. This policy research was then published in the national 10 Ideas for Education journal, in which the top 10 policy ideas from college students around the country are published. 

Continuing to explore my interests in public health and policy, the summer after my sophomore year, I had a two-month stint as a health policy intern at the Chicago Department of Public Health. My work at the Department of Public Health was a perfect overlap of all of my interests: medicine, economics and public policy. After working with health economists, physicians and public health officials that summer, I know that being a physician and public health policymaker is a career I want to pursue.

A young man with heart and a conscience to go along with a wonderfully blooming intellect. Read his responses in the rest of the Q & A and you realize how UGA inspires people who are already very motivated. A great message for our campus, not to mention the future. Congratulations Rahul and thanks for helping make the university even more amazing.