Turlock Student Blends Public Health, Advocacy to Support Underserved Communities

Samra has embraced the opportunities UC Merced offers.

She spent her first summer working at the Community and Labor Center's Labor Summer Internship - an eight-week, paid internship program where she learned the fundamentals of community and labor organizing.

She participated in epidemiology research with public health Professor Sandra Ha, focused on environmental health issues in Fresno.

She worked multiple campus jobs and participated in several clubs.

She founded EmpowerHER, a nonprofit pop-up clothing boutique providing unhoused people with essential clothing and hygiene items, and started a complementary campus organization that promotes educational opportunities for women

She spent the fall semester of 2025 at the University of California Washington Center - known as UCDC - interning with the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. The experience further ignited her passion to understand and dismantle systemic barriers to health equity and influenced her future goal to pursue health policy or health law, focusing on LGBTQ+ health rights and AI regulations in healthcare.

"I've used it to my full advantage. I feel like I wouldn't have been able to do all those things at the same time as my academics if I went to a big school," she said.

Samra and her sister Nikita help run a community medical clinic for substance use and unhoused people called Vituity Cares in Modesto. The pop-up serves up to 300 individuals monthly, supported by volunteers and community health workers.

"Every month we offer medical care, haircuts, showers, food and activities for children. We have community health workers who come out from nearby hospitals, and we bring students from UC Merced to volunteer," she said.

After graduating in May, she plans to study for the LSAT with the goal of starting law school in the fall of 2027.

Samra encourages students to get involved in meaningful campus activities and find opportunities that align with their interests.

"Stay true to what you would like to do in life. Get involved…find your niche and keep going," she said.