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A Passion for STEM – Naba Khan

Naba Khan, ’15, came to Meredith loving science. A biology major with minors in chemistry and psychology, she considered a variety of health fields during her first two years.

But after working in the Meredith Autism Program (MAP) and traveling to Ghana, Africa, her sophomore year, she realized that a career in the occupational therapy field would allow her to combine all of her passions: her love of science and psychology, her interest in working with the special needs population, and her desire to serve others.

Through MAP, Naba worked as a one-on-one trainer every summer. She also taught classes for children with autism, and assisted her client with autism through a transition to a typical preschool in downtown Raleigh.

Naba said that what she loved most about Meredith was the opportunity to investigate all of her interests – and discover new ones.

An Honors student, she has sought out other opportunities to assist her community, including tutoring other students in writing and English and serving as president of Beta Beta Beta, the national honors biology society.

“This club has taught me so much about service in the sciences. We raised money to provide a red blood cell transfusion for a patient, raised funds for cancer research, and did a science experiment for children in an after school program.”

Naba plans to take a gap year to gain more occupational therapy experience before graduate school. She’ll be employed by Small Miracle, working with different special needs populations in the Raleigh/Durham area. She also plans to job shadow, both in local clinics and hospitals and in Central America.

“As an occupational therapist, my goal is to live abroad for quite some time and work in clinics abroad. I am so excited for my gap year, because I can take time to practice my passion fully. Meredith has prepared me for that.”

Learn more about Meredith’s biology program.

Watch this video and hear Naba talk about her experience in Meredith’s Honors program: