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Insherah Qazi '26
Insherah Qazi ’26
In October 2021, Little Rock Central High School went on lockdown after open gunfire sent stray bullets into a classroom. At the time, Insherah Qazi ’26 was a high school senior. The incident created a sense of urgency for Qazi to fight for change. She and her classmates created a local chapter of Students Demand Action. When she moved to Atlanta to attend Agnes Scott College, she was able to remain involved with the organization.
As an advocate for reducing gun violence in communities, Qazi intended to pursue a major in religious studies and social justice when she arrived at Agnes Scott. But in taking an economics course for her general education requirements, her professor noticed her strength in the discipline.
“She told me I should think about pursuing math and economics classes, because I could do a lot of important social justice work that way, too,” said Qazi. “Later, studying a hospital-based violence interruption program in a creative writing class crystallized my vision of how it could all come together—healthcare systems and health economics are an access and justice issue. I could do the social justice work while studying math and econ, and shadowing at the hospital.”
Volunteering in the nursing unit at Emory was only one of the co-curricular activities Qazi participated in during her undergraduate tenure. In fact, her resume proves that access to meaningful mentorship and coursework, combined with pure motivation, is the key to claiming endless opportunities.
The summer after junior year, Qazi completed research at the Wharton School as a Summer Undergraduate Minority Research (SUMR) Scholar. Through this opportunity, she explored the relationship between pediatric healthcare access, the privatization of care practices and patient outcomes. Another project she worked on looked at firearm injury prevention among young children through access to green spaces.
“SUMR was a great introduction to health economics and health services research,” said Qazi. “I was exposed to projects exploring how we can make healthcare more accessible, from investigating the effects of healthcare privatization on pediatric hospitals to creating greenspaces and miniparks shaped by teens’ input and examining the broader social determinants of health. Coming from Arkansas, where I was born and raised, it was incredible to experience a major hub for healthcare research and see firsthand how research at institutions like the Wharton School, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Penn Medicine can translate into real-world change. This experience inspired me to continue pursuing health services research and explore the intersection of medicine, policy, and advocacy.”
Qazi was just as involved on-campus, serving in Student Government Association as class president for two years—going as far as to write a resolution focused on prohibiting the college from investing endowment funds into the gun industry. Campus policy was just the beginning—as a first-year student, she attended the Spring Lobby Weekend with the Friends Committee on National Legislation in D.C. Later, she interned with Senator Warnock, helping to advocate for gun legislation in Georgia, and had the opportunity to meet with former Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss issues related to gun violence in the United States.
“Agnes Scott really paved a way for me to explore the causes I really care about. I felt like I didn’t have to hold back here—I could talk about issues that I was passionate about. And people would really listen and engage with me.”
Insherah Qazi
Listen and engage, they did. Post graduation, Qazi continues to keep in touch with her professors and peers, which will be an important reminder of home as she travels to Indonesia to complete her Fulbright Fellowship.
“I want to learn from the people around me, engage with the community beyond my research and challenge myself to grow through this experience,” Qazi said. “Living in another country changes the way you see the world and yourself.”
After her Fulbright Fellowship ends, Qazi intends to pursue medical school.
