Shriya is a first-generation student from India at Georgetown University School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate B.S in Biology from The Pennsylvania State University. During her undergraduate years, Shriya explored the role of Ikaros and CK2 in B and T cell leukemia and presented her work at Annual AACR national conferences. She trained as a St. Baldrick’s Summer Fellow and continues to work on pediatric leukemia research and scientific writing. She has also worked on a creative research project based on entertainment education with an aim of bridging language and culture gaps in conveying essential health-related information in resource deficient countries. She then took the project a step further and pitched it at the Global Health and Social Innovation Conference at Yale. Shriya has also studied abroad in Peru, and lived in the Amazon rainforest for a service-learning experience where she was able to work on projects with National Geographic while exploring ways to introduce a bridging tool between modern world knowledge and indigenous knowledge regarding the biodiversity of the Amazon. In medical school, Shriya is involved in the Council on Diversity Affairs (CODA)- to promote cultural competence and diversity and inclusion at different levels of the school of medicine campus. Shriya spent a majority of her teenage years playing basketball competitively in India and continues to be passionate about basketball-related activities and participates in events by being a regular at the college games, volunteering for the wheelchair-basketball tournaments, and playing in local tournaments. She believes that a majority of her experiences and accolades are due to the exceptional mentors that she was fortunate to receive along her path and truly believes in giving back through mentorship based on her experiences. She has been very invested in mentorship at every stage in her journey to the US and beyond and would be happy to answer questions regarding research/ conference platforms for your ideas, navigating opportunities and scholarships as an international student, or to hit the courts and support fellow sports fans. Talk to Shriya about increasing diversity in medicine, studying abroad, global health innovation and anything else!