About Us

Jordan is a rising junior from Northern Virginia who is majoring in psychology and minoring in chemistry on the pre-med track. He wants to be a physician because he has had family members die from preventable causes. Jordan understands that the doctor-patient relationship is a special one and the patient isn’t going to fully open up and feel comfortable unless their doctor looks like them and understands what they go through on a daily basis. Understanding the patient on a personal level is key to better treatment. Playing sports and getting injured, he was able to experience this first hand and those experiences fueled his fire even more for wanting to become a physician. Jordan was tense before the surgery because he didn’t know what to expect. After all, he was letting a stranger cut his body open. The anesthesiologist came into the room and was the first person to provide him with a sense of comfort. This interaction influenced Jordan to want to become an anesthesiologist and he would like to have this impact on his patients as well. According to AAMC, Black people make up about 13% of the American population, but only 5% of active physicians. With this in mind, he plans on diversifying healthcare and getting to know all of you!

Fun fact: Jordan loves 90s and early 2000s R&B as well as podcasts!

Riddhi is from Lynchburg, and is majoring in biology and minoring in psychology and chemistry, on the pre-medicine track. Riddhi’s main goal is to become a pediatrician! She wants to become a pediatrician so she can cure children of serious and non-serious medical conditions, to ensure they have less obstacles on the road to reaching their full potential. Growing up in Lynchburg, she did not see many doctors of minority background, and she recognizes how that plays a very important role in the quality of healthcare that minorities receive. The low representation of minorities in the healthcare field, along with the struggles and obstacles she faced as a freshman is what drove her to co-found VCU P.R.I.M.E. She’s very excited to work and network with all of you!

Fun fact: Riddhi loves Beyoncé and watching Bollywood movies!

Hala is from Abu Dhabi, and is majoring in Biology and minoring in Chemistry, on the pre-med track. Hala wants to become a dermatologist so she can cure people with all kinds of skin diseases. Her passion for dermatology stems from her own experience with a chronic skin condition and a myriad of allergies. Hala recognizes how the lack of ethnic diversity in the field of dermatology disproportionately affects the BIPOC community and often leads to misdiagnosed dermatologic disorders. She co-founded VCU P.R.I.M.E because she wants to see more diversity and inclusion in all healthcare fields.

Fun fact: Hala loves Selena Gomez and enjoys watching Dr. Pimple Popper!

Anirban is a rising junior majoring in biology, interested in pursuing an MD-PhD to become a surgeon-scientist. Throughout his interactions with physicians and healthcare professionals, Anirban noticed a gap between the understanding of molecular underpinnings of disease and clinical interventions provided to patients. Through connecting his surgical practice to a basic science lab, Anirban hopes to address this gap between medicine and the research that drives it.

Anirban is also passionate about providing avenues for patient-centric care through encouraging in-depth doctor-patient interaction, and through his experiences has recognized the lack of minority representation in healthcare. Anirban co-founded VCU P.R.I.M.E. to address this deficit and support underrepresented students and promote pre-health undergraduate success!

Lugene is a freshman residing in Stafford, majoring in Interdisciplinary science with a concentration in professional science on the Pre-Medicine track. Lugene is striving to become a physician in hopes of giving back to underprivileged, disadvantaged communities and ensure that everyone is getting access to the proper care and nutrition they need to implement a good and healthy lifestyle. Entering freshman year during a global pandemic and adjusting to taking classes online from home was a struggle for Lugene, but that apprehensiveness quickly disseminated when she joined VCU P.R.I.M.E because she soon realized that a lot of her peers undergoing the same track were going through the same thing.

Lugene had found PRIME through an ad on her phone while on Instagram and was immediately eager to join and has been active in it since! She joined for the simple reason that PRIME harbors a network that works in a multitude of ways to help navigate undergraduate students like herself to help steer her in the path to medicine and to take advantage of the opportunities that PRIME offers!

Fun fact: Lugene’s favorite artist is Snoh Aalegra and she has a cat named Oreo!