Ahead of the May 8th Return to Camp Randall ceremony for the 2021 spring commencement, UW-Madison is highlighting a few notable graduates. Among them is IIP alum Mahima Bhattar, who did a virtual internship with Health Access Connect, a non-profit based out of Uganda, during the summer of 2020. Click here to read more about her internship experience with Health Access Connect!
As a freshman, Mahima Bhattar noticed there was no a cappella singing team among the South Asian performing arts student organizations. She soon rectified that, founding Wisconsin Waale (Vaa-lay) as a sophomore. The name means “Wisconsin people” in Hindi. “We wanted to make sure that our team was inclusive and represented various experiences on our campus, and so this name signifies that we are all Wisconsin people,” says Bhattar, a sociology and economics major from Naperville, Illinois. Bhattar served as co-director of the India Student Association her junior year and has been a part of Sex Out Loud, a peer-to-peer sexual health resource. Being part of the South Asian community and working in sexual health education has inspired her to go into public health and work on health equity across cultural groups. Listen to the group.
The profile above was taken from the article, “Meet some of the notable UW–Madison graduates of spring 2021.” Find the full article here.