My Leadership in Action project this summer is working at the Kalpavriksham Trust, a non-profit organization associated with the Privaram Cancer and Research Institute, which is a small-scale cancer clinic aiming to provide chemotherapy and immunotherapy at an affordable rate for low-income communities in Chennai, India. My work last summer involved developing and optimizing novel kinase inhibitors to treat breast cancer, and this work builds on that theme by investigating how to make such treatments accessible to a larger patient community. 

This first week has been extremely interesting for me, as a premedical student, as I've been gaining a lot of exposure to the administrative side of maintaining private clinics. This week, the clinic needs to apply to renew its NABH accreditation, a national board in India to legitimize private clinics, and as a result, we have been doing a lot of inventory and clinic upkeep work. Alongside this work, I've been able to interact directly with patients as they come to visit the clinic. One activity that I'm looking forward to in the coming 2 weeks is helping organize and participate in a non-profit HPV vaccination drive that will be conducted for the local communities. 

Attached below is a not-so-great quality picture of the view from the terrace of my apartment building (I really wanted to get a sunrise photo with the beach in the background, but somehow I managed to beat jetlag on the first day so I have not yet woken up before the sun rose).