NATURAL SCIENCE
Major: Health policy and human development
Graduated May 2016
The Difference Maker
Harish Kilaru joined his first healthcare startup during his first year of college. Called Centricycle, the company’s goal was to provide centrifuges for medical clinics in rural India. “I loved that experience,” he says. “I wanted to use business to create social change in healthcare.”
Like the startup, Kilaru’s educational plan was also ambitious: He wanted to start in LSA as pre-med, then transfer to the Ross Business School, then go to medical school.
But business school wasn’t what he expected.
“When I got to Ross, I wanted to learn how the principles of business could lead to change for the greater good, but not everyone there has a similar focus. It was a little bit difficult to find my place.”
After one semester, Kilaru returned to LSA. “I wanted a school that offered more flexibility in taking different types of classes,” he says. In an effort to figure out what his major should be, Kilaru started exploring subjects, and ultimately wound up designing his own major: health policy and community development.
“The major is a blend of the economic and social determinants of health. I took econ classes, a lot of science, plus policy-related classes—a little bit of everything.”
