May Newsletter
- amwautd
- 21 hours ago
- 9 min read
2026 Edition
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
-- Albert Einstein
The Editor's Take: Congratulations to all!
Happy summer ˚⋆𓇼˚⊹ 𖦹 ⁺｡° , AMWA UTD!
My name is Gauri, and I wanted to end off my year as Editor by saying thank you so much for tuning into the newsletter! For those of you who graduated, congratulations, for those of you already enjoying your summer breaks, congratulations! This May, we bring you our yearly reflections.
As I sign off from my role as Editor, I want to encourage you all to take life one day at a time. Our fields and professions will be hard enough as it is. We need to optimize our lives and find those little moments, the small wins, the simple pleasures. As my undergraduate career comes to an end, I am looking forward to a future of lifelong learning. I urge you all to continue to remain curious and dedicated to every single endeavor you take part in. I would also encourage everyone to take up more creative hobbies/activities to keep the non-academic sides of yourselves happy.
The newsletter's next Editor-in-Chief will be Samhitha Palla! She has shown her dedication throughout the entire year as a writer and I know she will implement fantastic changes to the newsletter. Our returning writers will be Abhi Saravanan, Amani Ahmed, and Sarah Sunelwala, and our new writers will be Anna May, Aditri Chikkam, and Prashansa (Paree) Sardesai. I urge you all to continue to tune into the newsletter this coming academic year!
Please feel free to email Samhitha at samhitha.palla@utdallas.edu with any questions/comments/concerns!
Have a stress-free summer 𓆉°❀,
Gauri
May Reflection
By: Samhitha Palla ('26-'27 Editor-in-Chief)
As the spring semester comes to an end, I realize that my junior year has been a blend of chaos and cherishable memories. This year has allowed me to push through my limits and become an individual that I can be proud of. From late night MCAT prepping to studying for the genetics exam, I value the hardships and rewards that continue to mold my personal growth and change. As the Texas heat signals the start of summer, I’m happy to take some time off and gear up for my final year at UTD.
Within AMWA, I’m thankful to this organization for providing an inclusive community for pre-health students and establishing the newsletter committee, where I continued to hone my skills as a writer. Through the newsletter committee, I not only learned how to fine tune. My writing style, but also expanded my interest in medicine by highlighting the scientific breakthroughs led by women in stem. One article that I fondly recall is a spotlight article that I wrote with Sahaana on Dr. Eva Ramon Gallegos, who was researching a method to eradicate HPV. The article holds a special place within my papers as a month after publishing, I learned that Dr. Gallegos has achieved a breakthrough in her goal to eradicate HPV. By gaining the opportunity to share her story, I’m excited to share her story and expand our existing knowledge on innovations in women’s health. Another one of my favorite articles was the implications of House Bill 7 that I wrote for the October newsletter. I’m proud of using my voice to share the implications of this bill towards our current reproductive rights. During these turbulent times, I intend to continue highlighting how politics can affect our healthcare system, thus hoping more aspiring healthcare professionals would take a moment of their time to educate themselves on how political discourse can affect medicine as a whole. While I’m relatively inexperienced in discussing the full potential of such topics, I wish to continue my journey of understanding how policy making can affect the future of medicine. In the end, writing these articles and sharing stories of powerful women has become a moment of tranquility among the storm of deadlines, exams, and the rush of everyday routines. We often move from one task to another without recognizing everything and everyone that fueled our personal and professional growth.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to be one of the writers on this years’ newsletter committee. The committee has allowed me to meet creative individuals who continue to inspire me through their passion and dedication to healthcare. Additionally, I’d like to give a special recognition to our editor, Gauri, who has done an incredible job in not only planning and executing articles every month, but also inspiring the writers to find their own voice and helping implement those ideas into brilliantly crafted articles. As I prepare to step into her role next year, I’m grateful for the example she has set and the dedication she has shown throughout her time as editor. As we prepare to move on to the next phase of our lives, I hope that we will continue to thrive and excel through all the chaos that life throws at us. I hope you all have a great summer and best of luck for the future!
Final Reflection
By: Sasha Burford
My senior year at UTD has been equally rewarding as it has been challenging. I’m so proud of the personal growth and change I’ve had as well as continuing to push myself academically through such a heavy courseload. The major update being that I am no longer pre-med but am now pre-PA! A change I feel really aligned with and am excited to embark on. I’ve also expanded my specialty interests from just pediatrics to dermatology and allergy/immunology. I’m so excited to move onto a new chapter and learn more about each field.
In respect to AMWA, I am so thankful to this organization for providing a community and space for us pre-health, woman-identifying students. As a transfer student, I was initially nervous about finding my place on a new campus but AMWA welcomed me with open arms. I even met one of my greatest friends through it! If you wanted or needed some push towards joining an organization, take this as it. Immerse yourself fully and take full advantage of your opportunities. Additionally, being a newsletter writer this year has given me a new understanding of how AMWA works behind the scenes plus being able to collaborate with other writers. One of my favorite articles my fellow committee members Abhi and Sarah wrote was the October Hot Button article - Florida Vaccine Mandate. I’m so happy to see that they are not afraid to speak on divisive issues in our healthcare system as well as doing their own diligent research on the topic. We need young women like this to continue to be involved with the dialogue of our world. I’m also really proud of my own individual article about The Invisible Woman. It touches on the different ways women are overlooked in healthcare. It’s a topic I am deeply passionate about and I hope that by writing about it, I’ve helped shed some light on how we can address these issues.
I’m really thankful for the opportunity to be one of the writers on this years’ newsletter committee. I’d like to give a shoutout to our editor Gauri who has done a phenomenal job planning and executing new articles every month. She always keeps us on track with deadlines and provides us with fantastic feedback on our individual and paired assignments. Thank you so much Gauri! We couldn’t do it without you. With that being said, I’ve really enjoyed writing this year and developing my writing style each month. Wishing you all a happy summer!
-- Sasha
Final Newsletter Reflection
By: Sahaana Anand
Hi everyone! Thank you for sticking through for all these years with the AMWA Newsletter. If you are reading this, then it is my honor to say that this will be final piece of work that I write for AMWA UTD. Over the past three years of being a part of this wonderful committee, I have been able to write from the heart about relevant topics, such as recent health issues, important women in medicine, and guest speaker interviews. I have also been able to work with other fellow writers, figuring out how each person works on creative and information writing has been a joy. I will have to shout-out the past three editor-in-chiefs who have put in great effort to keep the newsletter alive and thriving, as well as providing me with a space to keep writing on matters that are important to me. Thank you Tanya, Zoe, and Gauri for all your help and guidance!
As my time comes to an end at UTD and AMWA, I can see how much growth I have had through being a part of this committee and writing. I have always loved writing as a creative outlet, and combining that with my passion for healthcare, medicine, science, and reaching out to help others has been so rewarding. I have loved all the conversations and work that came from being a part of this committee. I am looking forward to seeing the growth of this lovely group of writers, and I hope it reaches more and more people. Being able to give back through the power of writing is such an honor. I hope anyone reading this has a great summer break, and I wish everyone the best of luck on everything they dream of!
Reflection
By: Abhi Saravanan
Joining the AMWA newsletter committee this year reminded me of how much importance I give to saying something that invokes thought and makes a difference. Writing articles on various topics this year, ranging from paired articles about the psychology behind fertility, to personal articles detailing just how far systemic racism in the medical field can go, I’ve also come to learn how much healthcare has to do with many disciplines. It’s not completely rooted in pure science; healthcare has hands in all kinds of areas, and it's important to acknowledge that and showcase how critical it is to our world as a whole.
My favorite article that I’ve written this year is my article for our Booked column, in which I discussed the biography “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot. It showed me the historical consequences of systemic racism in real time in an engaging manner, going back and forth from Henrietta’s life and Skloot’s journey trying to piece it together. It was an eye-opening, poignant read that showed me just how much personal history is involved in research that benefits the masses.
I’m so excited to continue my work with the AMWA newsletter committee moving into the 2026 - 2027 school year. I hope that our members and committee have a wonderful summer, and I’m prepared to showcase even more engaging sides to medicine with my writing!
May Reflection
By: Amani Ahmed
This school year has been filled with a lot: from late-night organic chemistry study sessions to long hours spent in the physics lab performing experiments (that didn’t even work half the time). I’m sure we can all relate to the challenge of navigating a barrage of assignments and exams, the stress of maintaining good grades, and the pressure to still spend time with friends and family. Remarkably, all along the way, the amazing AMWA writers and I were able to dedicate our time toward researching, drafting, and publishing illuminating articles for our newsletter every month.
When I first applied to become a writer, I simply expected to learn more about issues and advances relating to medicine and research, as well as being able to hone in on my writing skills. While I was able to accomplish both of these things, this experience writing for the AMWA newsletter has, more importantly, allowed me to uncover aspects of myself, as well as inspired me to delve into relatively unexplored areas and share my thoughts and findings through writing.
One article that I especially hold dear is my Booked column piece over Dr. Henry Marsh’s memoir, Do No Harm. In my article, not only was I able to present Marsh’s harrowing experience as a neurosurgeon, but I was also able to relate his challenges to the ones I encountered while working in a neuroscience research lab for the first time this school year. Marsh deeply inspired me to take on challenging tasks, and to not let fear of failure prevent me from pursuing my goals. It is extremely difficult to rebound from mistakes, especially after making rather big ones. However, it is crucial not to allow yourself to be consumed by guilt and doubt so that you can keep moving forward to even bigger and greater things.
On a similar note, I’d like to highlight the work of all our AMWA writers; they piqued my interest through a wide variety of topics, from the debate sparked by the reclassification of medical degrees to the increasing role of AI in healthcare. In particular, I’d like to showcase our writer Abhi and her captivating article published back in November, which explained the history of the crow mask - a common costume seen during Halloween time, but interestingly has dark ties to the Bubonic Plague. I especially admired how Abhi was able to make health connections to things we observe in the present, such as we did in our paired article “How Social Media is Fueling Fertility Anxiety” (another one of my favorite articles!)
I am truly amazed by the talent of all of AMWA writers and am extremely grateful to have been part of the newsletter. Although this year has come to a close, I feel that my journey as a writer is just beginning. I am excited to continue growing alongside my fellow writers and can’t wait to see what the next year has in store. ❤︎
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