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Nandita Kumar, honor student and organizer.

Nandita Kumar

Honors College Student Organizes Global Health Competition

Kumar (center) joined UT Dallas leadership, including Dr. Donal Skinner (third from right) and fellow students in the Hobson Wildenthal Honors College at the 2023 Celebration of Support.

Nandita Kumar, a junior public policy student at The University of Texas at Dallas, is passionate about ending global health inequities. She wanted to find a space where students across disciplines can work together to resolve today’s conflicts. During her research, she discovered the Emory Global Health Case Competition, a week-long event dedicated to bringing together talented students from diverse institutions across the globe to solve complex health-related issues.

Kumar thought her classmates and students in other colleges and disciplines would also be interested in competing but did not know how she would attract the people and the funding or find the time to do it all by herself. She sought the help of her mentor, Dr. Donal Skinner, dean of the Hobson Wildenthal Honors College and the Mary McDermott Cook Chair.

“Dr. Skinner was incredibly supportive of the idea,” Kumar said. “When I went to him with my estimated budget for 40 students to compete, he was willing to provide me with all financial and personnel aid I needed, which was a huge burden off my shoulders. While he handled a lot of the administrative challenges, I was able to focus on the actual marketing and planning of putting a team together.”

Avinash Chivakula (left) and Nandita Kumar (right) pose for a picture in front of the Love Jack art installation.
Avinash Chivakula (left) assisted Nandita Kumar to help create her idea for a Global Health Case Competition at The University of Texas at Dallas.

Within three weeks, the applications were live, and the campus response shocked her. Over 145 students applied to be part of the UT Dallas Global Health Case Competition.

“We were hoping to get 40 students,” Kumar said. “We had three times more demand than that. It was so exciting because that proved to Dr. Skinner and me that students are ready to bring their disciplines together – whether that was bioengineering, pre-law or anything else – and work on creating innovative solutions to big issues.”

Teams of four to six students had to represent at least three different academic schools on campus. The groups then prepared presentations addressing the competition’s topic – “Taking on Environmental Health Disparities: Developing Health Action Plans to Improve the Health of Indigenous Peoples.” 

Although Kumar originally intended to compete herself, she became the case competition planning chair, guiding the event logistics and helping to prepare the winning UT Dallas team for further competition beyond the University.

“It is so important to invest in student ideas,” Kumar said. “Having administrative and external support for student ideas like mine means that UTD can offer more to its vibrant student community. Universities are a fantastic place to make confident leaders.”