Nishika Navrange

UConn School of Medicine

My name is Nishika Navrange and I am a student at UConn School of Medicine intending to graduate in 2027. I was born in Detroit, Michigan and raised in Connecticut. I received my Bachelor’s in Science in Neural Science from NYU in 2023. Previously, I volunteered in the emergency room at Bellevue Hospital, which is the biggest safety net and public hospital in New York City. Here, I communicated with many underserved patients that faced chronic disease along with external obstacles, such as housing insecurity or unemployment. Eventually, I became the program coordinator for the volunteer program and learned how the hospital system launched initiatives to better advocate for patients. This experience inspired me to continue working with an urban population and strive to keep vulnerable patients healthy.

I seek to be involved in UST/AS to enrich my understanding on how I can help patients on a more systematic level. I want to make sure individuals can become healthy not only in the hospital, but remain healthy even as they are discharged and face complex struggles in their day-to-day lives. The UST/AS will enable me to be a physician that strives to make change on both a personal and public health level. I hope to better understand the complexity of an individual patient’s narrative and also be equipped to make a more substantial change to the community as a whole.