Rama Darayyad

Graduate Fellowship Recipient, 2025

Rama Darayyad is a Communication Sciences and Disorders major with a minor in Global Health and was accepted into the very competitive Accelerated Public Health Program, which is a combined program open to Northwestern students during their junior year. Students take graduate public health courses as a senior and then formally begin their MPH in June. Rama also holds a credit in American Sign Language. Her letters of recommendation gave her high praise, but Pete Locke’s reflections were most powerful: “I was lucky to have Rama as an exceptional student in my advanced seminar, War and Public Health. It was during this time that American university campuses were experiencing controversy and upheaval as students organized to protest the staggering human toll of the war in Gaza that began in October 2023. Rama’s family is originally from Palestine and has direct experience of multiple waves of violence and displacement in the region, leading ultimately to their emigration to the United States. In the same class I also had students descended from Holocaust survivors who identified strongly with Israel and felt uncomfortable with the student protests. What struck me most about the experience of teaching this class during such a difficult time was the maturity, thoughtfulness, and collegiality of all my students, and Rama in particular. She is a gifted intuitive leader and colleague.” In her personal statement, Rama writes that her “passion lies in working with refugee children and families, listening to their stories, and improving their access to care.”