MIT student Malhaar Agrawal named 2023 Truman Scholar
MIT junior Malhaar Agrawal has been chosen as a 2023 Truman Scholar. Established by the U.S. Congress in 1975 as a residing memorial to President Harry S. Truman and a nationwide monument to public service, the Truman Scholarship helps and evokes the subsequent era of public service leaders. Truman Students are chosen for his or her excellent management potential, dedication to a profession in public service, and tutorial excellence.
Agrawal, who’s majoring in humanities and science, joins the 61 different new Truman Students who have been chosen from 705 candidates nominated by 275 faculties and universities. Seventeen unbiased choice panels evaluated the finalists’ tutorial success and management accomplishments, in addition to their probability of changing into public service leaders. Regional choice panels included distinguished civic leaders, elected officers, college presidents, federal judges, and previous Truman Scholarship winners.
Agrawal was supported by MIT’s Truman Choice Committee, chaired by Ann F. Friedlaender Professor of Historical past Anne McCants, and MIT’s Distinguished Fellowships workforce in Profession Advising and Skilled Growth. Kimberly Benard, director of distinguished fellowships, says, “Malhaar is devoted to service. Since highschool, he has labored to cut back disparities in well being care and has beforehand been acknowledged by each the Bronx and Brooklyn borough presidents for his work. At MIT, he has solely expanded his attain. We’re all excited to see the place he goes, and the way he continues to battle for underserved populations. He is a wonderful consultant of what MIT stands for, and we’re very proud that he was named a Truman Scholar.”
Agrawal, who hails from Westchester County, New York, plans to pursue a profession in public well being and coverage advocacy with a give attention to enhancing well being fairness. In 2016, he started to research well being inequities by way of an internship with the Brooklyn Well being Disparity Middle, a corporation that seeks to bridge the hole by way of native outreach in underserved communities. Subsequently, Agrawal based his personal model of this system, Well being Disparity, within the Bronx. It offers well being training to underserved youth by way of college and group workshops. McCants says, “The truth that Malhaar honed his imaginative and prescient for the broader unfold of lifesaving health-care info by visiting native barber retailers and assembly individuals the place they lived says a lot about his dedication to a profession in public well being. For Malhaar, public service with out the general public simply doesn’t make any sense.”
Agrawal got here to MIT to check the problems surrounding well being care inequities by way of each expertise and the social sciences and selected to main in humanities and science. Throughout his first 12 months of programs, he accepted a analysis place with Professor Jonathan Gruber, making a statistical mannequin utilizing nationwide scientific publication knowledge to check worldwide innovation in the course of the Covid-19 lockdowns, which was printed within the MIT Undergraduate Analysis Journal and was acknowledged by the Workplace of the First Yr’s Analysis Award. Agrawal adopted up this expertise with a analysis place with affiliate professor of city planning and public well being Mariana Arcaya, during which he performed each qualitative and quantitative analysis on racial justice in tutorial literature. This previous spring, Agrawal interned within the White Home within the Council of Financial Advisors, inspecting inequities throughout the economic system in the course of the restoration from Covid-19.
Agrawal’s work at MIT has culminated in a startup referred to as ProstateNinja, a portal for sufferers with prostate most cancers to extend their entry to medical trials and health-care suppliers. He envisioned and developed the concept by way of the HackHarvard hackathon and funding from MIT Sandbox. Agrawal needs to take his information and proceed to develop improvements that enhance well being entry.
Exterior of Agrawal’s dedication to well being disparities, he developed a ardour for politics and hosted a weekly radio present, “Let’s Discuss Politics,” on MIT’s group radio station WMBR 88.1 FM. On the present, Agrawal mentioned occasions and matters of political, social, and cultural relevance. This 12 months, he’s collaborating in examine overseas on the College of Oxford, the place he’s additional exploring race by way of the lens of Victorian English literature. He has additionally turn out to be concerned with their debate society, the Oxford Union, and performs rugby on his school workforce.