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Sonia Samagh, MBA 2011: "My name is Sonia Samagh, and I am a student here at the GSB.
I've completed three years of Medical school and I'm here at the GSB to complete two years
of my MBA. My interest in medicine stems from the values that my parents instilled within
me. As a member of the Sikh faith, the idea of Seva and selfless service drew me towards
a profession like medicine.
My interest in global health was really sparked by this idea of health and innovation. I teamed
up with the professor who led the course. Essentially what he did is he brought in surgeons
from around the world to tell us about all the amazing things that they were doing, either
*** colonies in India or cataract surgery in Africa...and I thought to myself "this
is something I absolutely want to do, too." And so he and I organized our first trip to
Mexico, where we helped another group of surgeons treat cleft lip and palate and burn victims.
With this professor, I started the non-profit Global Health Volunteers.
In founding Global Health Volunteers and going to medical school, I've realized that my long-term
goal is to become CEO of a non-profit in international health and medicine. In order to run an organization
effectively, I needed a tool set to do so...more importantly a business school tool set that
the Stanford GSB in particular cultivates in its leaders. We're on the campus that has
so many different disciplines, so for me coming in as a MD/MBA student there are a lot of
opportunities to combine my medicine background and a new business skill set. The motto of
the Stanford Business School is "change lives, change organizations, change the world." And
I realized that that's what I wanted to do with Global Health Volunteers and coming to
Stanford will really give me the toolkit to be able to become an effective leader. To
create an organization that really did change lives, and change the world in the area of
international health and medicine."