Rhodes Scholar Pooja Kumar to Continue Humanitarian Work
Kumar, a 2001 Duke graduate and second-year student at Harvard Medical School, plans to resume her medical studies when she completes her Oxford degree
Pooja Kumar discovered her life's work as a Duke sophomore.
That year, she attended a lecture by journalist and author Philip Gourevitch, which inspired her to immediately read his book, We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families, about the Rwandan genocide
"That book served as the instigation for me to delve further through my classes, thesis work and work abroad into what happened in countries affected by war, why, and what the major health issues were," Kumar said. "This led to my becoming completely absorbed in the broader issue of health and war."
And now Kumar, a 2001 Duke graduate and second-year student at Harvard Medical School, will delve even further while studying at the University of Oxford.
Kumar learned last week that she is one of 32 Americans to be awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. The scholarship -- which rewards such characteristics as high academic achievement, personal integrity and leadership potential -- will pay for Kumar to spend two years at Oxford, where she will pursue a master of philosophy degree in international relations.
She plans to resume her medical studies when she completes her Oxford degree.
Kumar, who was "shocked and ecstatic" by the announcement, said the experience at Oxford will help her better understand the relationships between states and international organizations, as well as learn more about how the relationships between states lead to conflict.
This will be invaluable, she said, as she pursues her goal to be a practicing physician in the U.S. who works for a non-governmental organization or international policy agency to improve humanitarian aid and health services for people affected by conflict.
"I think everyone has to sit down at some point and ask: 'What are the most important questions or problems out there in the world? Where do my strengths, passions and abilities lie? And where are the intersections?' For me, the field of health and war is where the intersections lie."
Kumar, who is from Doylestown, Pa., distinguished herself throughout her academic career at Duke.
In the summer of 2000, she worked for the Save the Children Federation in East Timor. While there, she created a plan for a national maternal and child health outreach program, studied the state of street children and researched the psychosocial well-being of village children to support a program Save the Children was putting into place.
In a paper she wrote following the trip, she called the experience "the most intensive learning experience I have had to date."
"While disasters are quick to fade from the world's attention, the realities of rebuilding, of punishing perpetrators of past atrocities, and of moving on with lives that were so directly touched by violence continue to be very real for the people of East Timor," she wrote. "In the past few months, the difficult and more 'long-term' tasks associated with setting up a viable and strong new nation have overtaken the need for emergency relief."
She was a Program II student who developed her own course of study in health policy and social values. She focused her intellectual pursuits, including her honors thesis, on war's effect on health. She also co-taught a course in international health issues. She graduated with distinction.
"She is obviously a brilliant woman, but what distinguishes her is her passion for what she does," said Kate Whetten, assistant professor of public policy studies and community and family medicine and director of Duke's Health Inequalities Program. Whetten served as Kumar's advisor and, as such, met with her regularly. They continue to stay in touch.
"She is able to both create a vision in her head for what should be and work around constraints that are currently in place," Whetten said. "She is incredibly focused and driven by her desire to make the world a place that is better. It is what her life is about."
After graduation, Kumar was awarded a Hart Fellowship with the International Rescue Committee in Azerbaijan. While there, she conducted comprehensive health assessments and educated health care workers and community members.
"As I write this, it has been over eight years since the ceasefire was declared between Azerbaijan and Armenia," she wrote in the summer of 2002, after spending about 10 months in Azerbaijan. "While this tenuous agreement has held since May 1994, something bigger and more human continues to insist that a temporary political measure is not enough: Azerbaijan is still home to almost one million IDPs (internally displaced persons) and refugees, and remains the one country in the world with the largest number of IDPs and refugees per capita."
Kumar has won numerous awards, including being named to USA Today's 2001 All-USA Academic first team. She also was recognized as a top U.S. student by Glamour magazine.
"She is willing to extend herself to create opportunities to learn and to experience other people and their cultures," said Kay Singer, an associate dean and health professions advisor at Duke. "She is not interested in merely collecting credentials or putting together an impressive resume. Rather, she has a level of commitment and concern that is uncommon. She is a remarkable young woman, and we will hear about her in the future."
Kumar's interest in international issues began when she was a child. Born in India, she lived with her family in Singapore, Indonesia and Canada.
As a high school senior, Kumar traveled with her grandmother and brother to Calcutta to work in Mother Teresa's care facility. As a Duke junior, she did an independent study of the mid-1990s cholera outbreak among Rwandan refugees.
"Traveling and working abroad was much more natural to me because of my somewhat itinerant childhood," Kumar said.
Kumar's work is also guided by another love: photography.
As an undergraduate, she received a John Hope Franklin Student Award through Duke's Center for Documentary Studies to teach East Timorese street children to use cameras to describe their experiences before, during and after the violence. She also taught photography to seriously ill children at Duke University Medical Center and Boston Children's Hospital.
Kumar will leave for England next fall, her camera accompanying her again.
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