Kishan Bhatt, a Princeton University senior, is among 10 students recognized by Princeton University as Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI). Bhatt, from Edison, New Jersey, is at the Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton. His focus is global health and health policy as well as American studies. He is also a health policy scholar at Princeton’s Center for Health and Wellbeing.
Established in 2006, SINSI is designed to encourage, support and prepare the nation’s top students to pursue careers in the U.S. federal government, in international and domestic agencies. Through rigorous academic training integrated with work experience, the goal of the highly competitive scholarship program is to provide students with the language and workplace skills needed to succeed in the public policy arena.
This year, for the first time, two groups of students have been admitted to the program. Seniors and first-year Master in Public Affairs students were able to apply for the graduate scholarship, and four graduate scholars were admitted. In addition, all freshmen, sophomores and juniors were invited to apply for new SINSI internships, and six students were admitted. In previous years, a total of five students were selected annually for SINSI during their junior year.
Kishan Bhatt, a senior from Edison, New Jersey, is a Wilson School concentrator and a certificate candidate in global health and health policy and American studies. A U.S. health policy scholar at Princeton’s Center for Health and Wellbeing, he cares deeply about policies that encourage medical innovation, disease prevention and value-based health care delivery.
During summer 2016, Bhatt analyzed clinical cost and outcomes data for Remedy Partners, a technology start-up that serves 1,300 hospitals participating in Medicare’s $12 billion Bundled Payment for Care Improvement program. Previously, he researched counter-bioterrorism strategy at the Federation of American Scientists, publishing a report for federal officials on the legal and biological tools to deter and detect potential disease threats. Bhatt has studied abroad in Spain and directed an international exchange program connecting 80 high school students from Japan and the United States. He serves as a four-year senator for the Undergraduate Student Government, a peer career adviser, an Orange Key tour guide and a fellow with the Human Values Forum.
Also among the 10 recipients was Nabil Shaikh, a senior from Reading, Pennsylvania, whose major is politics, along with pursuing a certificate in global health and health policy. During summer 2016, Shaikh spent two months as a Princeton Global Health Scholar in Hyderabad, where he surveyed more than 100 terminally ill cancer patients on their experiences with accessing end-of-life care, as part of his thesis program.
Nabil Shaikh, a senior from Reading, Pennsylvania, is a politics major and a certificate candidate in global health and health policy and in values and public life. Shaikh, who cares deeply about global access to health care and health disparities, has spent his time at Princeton broadening his understanding of how various actors and policies shape health and wellness in society.
During summer 2016, Shaikh spent two months as a Princeton Global Health Scholar in Hyderabad, India, where he performed thesis research surveying more than 100 terminally ill cancer patients on their experiences with accessing end-of-life care. He then spent time in Trenton, New Jersey, as a policy research intern at the New Jersey Department of Health, focusing on minority and multicultural health. Shaikh is active in the activities of the Muslim Life Program, Muslim Advocates for Social Justice and the Office of Religious Life. He has served as treasurer for the Pace Council for Civic Values and as a freshman trip leader for Community Action.