University of Alabama at Birmingham honors student Sadhvi Batra is one of only 40 winners nationwide for the Humanity in Action Fellowship, which supports original research concerning intolerance and democratic values.
Humanity in Action is an international educational organization that promotes human rights and diversity. The fellowship that brings together university students and young professionals is highly competitive, with more than 700 applicants from around the globe.
Batra recently graduated from UAB with a degree in neuroscience and philosophy in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences. She also was a member of the UAB Honors College’s Science and Technology Honors Program and is completing her master’s degree in the School of Public Health’s fifth-year fast-track program.
“I applied for this fellowship because it promises academic rigor, calls for action and connects students to a network of inspiring senior fellows,” Batra said. “The fellowship not only will allow me to study human rights globally, but will provide me with resources and tools that will allow me to be an agent of change in my own community. Furthermore, the network of senior fellows will bring collaborations across disciplines as a means to solve the world’s most complex issues.”
Batra hopes the fellowship’s combination of research and activism will deepen her understanding of social injustices and how social issues affect public health and health inequality.
“I believe this understanding will help me pursue my career goals in becoming an academic physician and a public health expert who studies health disparities and the social determinants of health,” Batra said. “Hopefully, the research opportunities afforded by the fellowship will help me gain knowledge of resources that I can take back to my community to implement an effective and sustainable action project, and add to my perspective by making me aware of my own underlying biases, and challenge me to think about the life that I want to live and lead.”
Ashley Floyd, associate director of the UAB Honors College and director of the Office of National and International Fellowships and Scholarships, says Batra’s commitment to social change helped lead her to winning this fellowship and several other national awards.
| Humanity in Action is an international educational organization that promotes human rights and diversity. The fellowship that brings together university students and young professionals is highly competitive, with more than 700 applicants from around the globe. |
“As an undergraduate student, she was awarded a Young Leaders scholarship from the National AIDS Memorial Grove for her work in the fight against HIV and AIDS. She was also selected as an E3! Ambassador for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders,” Floyd said. “Her continued commitment to human rights combined with her leadership abilities helped her land this prestigious accomplishment.”
Batra will graduate with a master’s degree in public health April 26. The fellowship begins May 25 in Washington, D.C., where the winners will begin orientation with the Council on Foreign Relations and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. On May 30, the fellowship program will begin in Europe. The fellows will depart on June 30 after the Humanity in Action International Conference.
Upon completion of the fellowship, Batra will begin her medical education, likely at the UAB School of Medicine.