Class of 2026: In hopes of sharing more good karma, Harrish Ganesh heads to medical school

By William Lineberry
Honors College

Harrish Ganesh often thinks about the lesson his mom instilled in him as a kid. At the time, it was somewhat lost on him, but as he grew older, his mother's wisdom served as his North Star.

Good karma comes back to you.

In this saying, it's not necessarily about just doing good to get good in return. Instead, Ganesh said, it's about doing good through sharing what you love with others.

Thus far, that's exactly what Ganesh has tried to do during his time at Virginia Commonwealth University and in the VCU Honors College. After graduating next month with a bachelor's degree in bioinformatics and biology from the College of Humanities and Sciences, he is headed to New York City. There, he will start his next chapter as a medical student at Weill Cornell Medicine at Cornell University.

It's Ganesh's lifelong dream to pursue medicine as a career. In his eyes, medicine, along with education, is the truest way to help people and keep the good karma going forward.

"At VCU, the number one thing that I learned was that I loved -- and the good karma I wanted to help spread - was education," Ganesh said. "I see and work with so many different types of patients and students because of Richmond, and it has really shown me the importance of access to education and health care."

On campus, Ganesh has been busy over his four years. He served as the director of TEDxVCU, worked as a senior peer-assisted study session leader through the VCU Campus Learning Center, and shadowed working physicians at VCU Health. He also participated in two research opportunities: one examining endocrine disruptors and their potential cancer-causing effects on humans, and the other examining tumor microenvironments in a lab setting at the NIH's National Cancer Institute.

Ganesh also has become a contributor and active participant in the Richmond community in a number of ways.

Since his freshman year, Ganesh has worked as an emergency medical technician once a week for the Tuckahoe Volunteer Rescue Squad. It's been an influential experience for Ganesh, helping him see a variety of patients, he said."Working as an EMT has reaffirmed to me that education, for not just working medical professionals, but also patients, is critical. Helping them understand what they should prioritize and how to care for themselves was a huge thing I learned through working as an EMT."

Ganesh has also worked to ensure that students in Richmond public schools can access a STEM education. Ganesh founded The Future Brighter, a nonprofit organization that aims to build interest, excitement and confidence among young children in STEM, while in high school in Northern Virginia and opened a chapter once he came to Richmond to attend VCU.

The Richmond chapter has helped provide a free STEM club for students at Westover Hills Elementary School on the city's Southside, and Ganesh said the response has been enthusiastic.

"It's great to see students get excited about STEM education and to have the opportunity to provide access to it at no cost for areas that don't have much funding available," Ganesh said.

It's all part of his motivating mantra to share what he loves and to do good.

That remains the goal as he says goodbye to VCU and heads to Cornell.

"I'm always going to be chasing something new or sharing something new, and that's what keeps me going," Ganesh said. "I love learning, and I love sharing that education that comes with it. It's a privilege what I have had, so I just want to give back."