Sujata Bhattarai Chhetri

Sujata is a second-year medical student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was born and raised in Nepal and moved to North Carolina in her early adolescent years. She studied Exercise Sport Science and Chemistry at UNC-Chapel Hill. It was in college when she began exploring her interest in global health by taking courses related to global studies and medical anthropology. During her sophomore year in college, she was a finalist for the Vimy Global Team Award for a research project focused on comparing the effect of menstruation taboos in adolescent girls in rural versus urban Nepal. Experiences like this have sparked her interest in incorporating global health in her medical career as it is an opportunity to address health disparities in low-resource settings around the world through research, education and service. She aspires to become a global minded physician who works to improve healthcare systems and achieve health equity for all people. In her free time, she enjoys playing soccer and running as well as traveling, watching movies and spending time with loved ones.

What does the Kean Fellowship mean to you?
I am honored and grateful to be a recipient of this award. The Kean Fellowship has given me the opportunity to experience what it's like to do global health work and be on the ground doing field work. It was truly the greatest gift to be able to directly observe and learn more about malaria from the local research assistants in Uganda. My experience this summer has further solidified my interest in tropical medicine and global health. This fellowship has not only been instrumental in advancing my career goals and aspirations but has also allowed me to meet other like-minded individuals and broadened my professional connections. This experience has expanded my perspective and knowledge in ways I would not be able to from reading or being in a classroom.

What do you anticipate learning?
Spending time in Uganda this past summer taught me about the reality of working in resource-limited settings. There are many challenges that come with global health work, but it was inspiring to see and learn about the unique solutions to overcome some of the barriers. I enjoyed learning more about malaria and the disease process itself as well as how the disease impacts the community I was directly working with. This experience taught me what it means to grow with and learn from the communities you serve, wherever that may be.

What interests you about tropical medicine and what problems are you interested in solving?
Having lived in a resource poor setting, as well as realizing the abundance of opportunities and privileges I have in the U.S., truly motivates me to work globally and give back where I can. Naturally, I became interested in tropical medicine as it’s explicably linked to global health with a high burden of infectious diseases in developing countries. My lived experiences made me realize early on the disparity in access to medical care and health outcomes for people who are socially and economically disadvantaged. Aside from my upbringing in Nepal, I feel that being outside your comfort zone is when you truly grow and have meaningful experiences and deep connections. I also believe it is important to be able to take topics in medicine and think about them in a global perspective. With the increase in globalization and industrialization, we are all more interconnected than we think (take COVID-19 for example). I am curious about common tropical infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, as well as non-infectious tropical diseases such as malnutrition. I am interested in cost-effective interventions on how to best solve the unique barriers that come with various tropical diseases. My experience in Uganda this past summer highlighted the importance of finding sustainable long-term ways to contribute to make a real global impact. The importance of supporting local efforts, involving the local community members and learning from the communities you work with to come up with solutions together that work for that particular site.