About

Hi, my name is Meghna. I am a rising Junior, Duke’s Pratt Class of 2027. My major is biomedical engineering with a Chemistry minor. I love dancing as part of both Duke Raas and Duke Lasya, running, and trying new foods.

My Brodhead Service Project is located in Kansas City, MO where I am partnering with Samuel U. Rodgers Community Health Center (SURHC) to help patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension better manage their conditions. I also worked with SURHC to help implement a colon cancer screening initiative.

I believe civic engagement is one of the most meaningful ways to strengthen the communities around us. Big, global issues can feel overwhelming, but starting locally makes change tangible. By engaging with people directly, we uncover challenges that often go unnoticed, issues that may be smaller in scale but are equally important to address.

For me, STEM education in underrepresented communities has been a passion since high school. I have valued these experiences not just for the chance to teach, but for the opportunity to learn from students and their perspectives. In college, I continued this work through FEMMES+, which promotes STEM learning for girls, and in summer 2024 through the DukeEngage Orange County program. There, I partnered with Girls Inc. to support their Eureka! summer camp, a space where girls could explore STEM, build confidence, and form lasting friendships. My role went beyond teaching their curriculum; I also created my own STEM lesson from scratch, challenging me to think creatively and adapt in real time. I got to know the girls beyond the classroom by listening to their stories, laughing together over shared hobbies, and discovering that, despite our different life experiences, we had plenty in common. Moments like these reaffirmed my belief that human connection, seeing both our differences and our shared humanity, is at the heart of volunteering.

As a biomedical engineering student, I am passionate about the intersection of healthcare, technology, and increasing access to these health resources. My previous experiences inspired me to explore how to address barriers to care in a healthcare setting. For BSP, I was drawn to the opportunity to work with a community health center serving underserved populations, where I could combine technical skills with direct service. This vision ultimately shaped the design of my specific BSP project.

For my BSP Fellowship, I partnered with Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center (SURHC), the first federally qualified health center in Missouri. Since its founding, SURHC has remained steadfast in its mission to serve underserved populations with compassionate, high-quality care. Over the summer, I witnessed their innovative, patient-centered approaches to improving health outcomes, including their emphasis on holistic care that addresses both medical and social needs.

SURHC is a national leader in community health, achieving immunization rates that exceed the national average and setting an example for other health centers across the country. I was especially inspired by their commitment to serving a multilingual patient population in a culturally responsive way. From having on-site interpreters to providing access to online translation services, the providers ensure that language is never a barrier to care. This experience has motivated me to deepen my own language skills, particularly in Spanish, so that I can better connect with and serve patients of all backgrounds in the future.