In high school, Priya Ahuja initially set out to attend college and medical school outside of Wisconsin at Case Western University in Ohio or Miami University in Florida.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed those plans dramatically, as he soon found himself — and his love for health care — in the biomedical sciences program at Marquette, just a few miles from home.
Service-loving Ahuja was always looking for ways to help the community around him. In the spring of 2020, he was a senior at Brookfield Academy preparing to design a local restaurant to help reduce food waste. The plague interrupted those plans again.
Enter the biomedical science discipline honors program – a six-credit program where students can demonstrate exceptional work in research or community involvement. This was his chance to fulfill his dreams of helping people – especially children – to understand the importance of proper nutrition.
Ahuja says: “I’ve always had a passion for improving people’s nutrition education, reducing food waste, and creating positive outcomes for people who don’t have enough to eat. “When I learned about food deserts in one of my freshman classes, the stark contrast between Milwaukee and its suburbs resonated with me.”
The United States Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as an urban area where residents have very low incomes compared to the state average and live within one mile of a major grocery store.
One of Ahuja’s most powerful experiences came as a community advocacy volunteer with the Sixteenth Street Clinic on Milwaukee’s south side, where she learned that the world of health care is moving toward on the walls of the hospital.
“We’ve done so many things that you wouldn’t normally think of as ‘health care,'” says Ahuja. We would stretch our legs and talk to patients about health issues. We were making Fit Bits for them and talking about the benefits of exercise. We started farmer’s market tours and talked about the importance of why certain foods are good for you. It was an eye-opening experience.”
Reflecting on her time at the Sixteenth Street Clinic and her volunteer work as a Spanish translator for the Physical Therapy Clinic on campus, Ahuja thought about how to incorporate this into her honors project. of instruction, “Development of a Nutrition Education Program for Elementary Children,” in the community. She returned the favor to the Sixteenth Street Clinic, where she taught local children about healthy eating through crafts such as making grains and fibers from molded clay and asking questions about where does their food come from.
Ahuja says: “The questions I asked the children made it a positive experience for them and made the children feel more in control of their eating habits than to be told what to eat by an adult.” “I may not be able to change the structure of grocery stores or fix food prices or the price hikes that can create food deserts, but I can lay the foundation for children through nutrition education to lead healthy lives.” beauty when I was young and old. I didn’t think I could take that chance.”
As he prepares to walk the stage at Commencement, Ahuja says he can’t help but think about how much he learned from his first job and how lucky he was to go to Marquette.
“I think if someone had told me when I was applying to college that I’d be where I am now — writing contracts and diplomatic emails and getting into positions,” he says. leadership – I couldn’t believe it. “The education I received here at Marquette is a privilege and I feel good about using that privilege to help others.”
Looking ahead, medical school remains Ahuja’s plan, although after a gap year he will be teaching his nutrition course at the Milwaukee Academy of the Sciences — a partnership he hope it continues long after he graduates.
“There is a wave [Marquette] a student will take over my work as soon as I finish,” he says. “During my gap year, I hope to start building a long-term relationship with the school that can benefit students like me and the school’s children.”
When Ahuja reflects on her time at Marquette, she realizes that her experiences of service and purpose created a picture of what her future holds now.
“I was very against going to a school close to home, and now I can’t imagine leaving Milwaukee and I’m thankful that I went to Marquette,” Ahuja says. “I have made a lot of connections and I understand the health needs of this community. But wherever I go as a doctor, I want to be in the community talking to people about their needs and what I can do. to help them.”
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