Yale School of Public Health Horstmann Scholar Pranav Savanur woke up one morning in late October, looked at his phone, and saw an email he had been hoping would come. That’s how the 2023 MPH candidate (Social & Behavioral Sciences, Global Health Concentration), learned he was one of 19 Yale students awarded a prestigious Kerry Fellowship by the Kerry Initiative for 2022-23.
The Initiative, founded in 2017 by former Secretary of State and former U.S. Senator John Kerry, Yale College ’66, is an interdisciplinary program that tackles pressing global challenges such as climate change and civilian security through teaching, research, writing, and international dialogue. The fellows collaborate with U.S. policymakers on leading-edge research and high-profile publications for a global audience.
After receiving the notification, Savanur immediately called his parents.
“As a first-generation American and the first in my family to study in the United States, moving from being an ‘outsider’ to an ‘insider’ is an emotion that cannot be put into words,” he said. “I immediately Facetimed my parents, who now live in India, to break the news. I could not think of doing anything else, and nothing but their smile would have satisfied me.”
Savanur said the Kerry Fellowship was something he had wanted to pursue while at Yale. In early November, he met the other fellows in the cohort, from all areas of the university, via Zoom.
As a first-generation American and the first in my family to study in the United States, moving from being an ‘outsider’ to an ‘insider’ is an emotion that cannot be put into words.
Pranav Savanur
Our cohort is incredibly diverse and we all come from various walks of life,” he explained. “It was intriguing to know that despite our diverse intellectual expertise, we share similar interests in the change we want to see around us and, moreover, the willingness to work together to make that change happen.”
It has been a busy 2022 for Savanur. In May, he was given a Leadership in Global Health Fellowship by the Yale Institute for Global Health. He spent the summer in Geneva, Switzerland, as an intern for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and is currently a consultant for Gavi’s U.S. strategy. In September, he was named a Solomon Center Health Law and Policy Fellow by the Yale Law School.
In 2020, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, Savanur – then pursuing his BS in human health biology, with a certificate in global health, medicine, and society at Kansas State University – co-founded Right to Health Action. This nationwide grassroots movement is committed to improving COVID-19 pandemic policies and practices in order to ensure health care equity for the poor and sick, prevent future pandemics, and improve care for all. He is currently a policy co-chair for the organization.
It was his work with Right to Health Action that spurred Savanur’s interest in global climate causes.
“The more I learned about pandemic prevention, the more evident the interconnectedness of people and our planet became,” he said. “Climate change threatens biodiversity and is a leading cause of emerging pandemics. Climate inaction was not an option, and I wanted to be a part of the solution.”
Savanur hopes to find ways to be part of that solution through the Kerry Fellowship. The fellowship is “a platform with endless possibilities and mentorships from changemakers I look up to, in the U.S. and globally, fighting the fight I want to continue fighting,” he said.
How Savanur will continue that fight after graduation remains to be seen.
“I have always thought about my ambition as a purpose and circled my work experiences around it,” he explained. “I am still determining where I will be working post-graduation. However, I want to continue working at the intersection of climate change and pandemics, in whatever best position becomes available to me.”