Majors: Canfield BHP, Finance, Pre-Med
Company: Apple
Position: Americas Operations Intern – Austin, TX
Topics of Interest: Healthcare Administration and Management, Mergers and Acquisitions, Mental Health, Biotechnology
Your time in college can be challenging but it can also be a wonderful time of self-exploration. You find out who you are and what you want to achieve during this time. The chance to explore what goals you want to achieve in life and how you can reach them makes these years especially crucial. With access to so many student organizations, it’s easy to find yourself planning about how in the world you’re going to be in so many different places at once and whether or not you have the time to commit to all of them equally. It’s a slippery slope that often leads to burnout and exhaustion. The important thing to remember is that you’re human and your time here is finite. This makes it doubly important that you prioritize what you want to achieve so you can do so with purpose and avoid the pitfalls that come with doing too many things at once.
We caught up with Nivva Emmi recently to talk about this and her aspirations. Between prioritizing goals and also having time to give back to her community in tangible ways, Nivva has dedicated herself to helping other people as much as she can. Nivva is a sophomore (soon to be Junior) majoring in Canfield BHP, Finance, and she’s also Pre-Med. Nivva isn’t just someone who is interested in the world of Canfield BHP, Finance, and Pre-Med as separate categories. Rather, she is someone who is deeply invested in the synergy found between them and the role they play in the lives of others.
She is intrigued, for instance, by how healthcare administration and management, and quality of care is affected when two health institutions merge. “I’m really interested in the merging of healthcare institutions in business and how in the future, business is going to be increasingly more integral.” Nivva believes that mergers between healthcare institutions are going to be increasingly prevalent, especially in the next decade. She adds that she loves being on the healthcare fund of the University Securities Investment team and learning about how all the different pharmaceutical (pharma) and biotech companies are competing in the general market. “Different things like new technologies and new medicines– they’re coming up with how the market perceives that and also how already tied-in business is with medicine in terms of just providing basic health care for patients while also trying to make a profit. It’s a very interesting line that’s being walked.”
How do you walk the line between business and ethics in the healthcare industry? It’s a topic of much debate, especially in today’s political climate on health care, which has spread all over the world. Particularly, developing countries such as India where Nivva explains she has lost so many loved ones to easily preventable diseases and accidents. These experiences have inspired Nivva to eventually pursue medical school where she hopes to solidify her clinical experience and delve into the clinical aspect of healthcare administration. Ultimately, she aspires to become a Chief Medical Officer (CMO) one day.
During our conversation about her goals, a common theme started to emerge. Without taking credit, Nivva talked about the ways she has helped people throughout her involvement in volunteer organizations and how she will continue to help people in the future – even when it doesn’t directly benefit her. Highlighting her volunteer work is a stellar list of student organizations Nivva has been involved with. This includes the Undergraduate Business Council (UBC), Kappa Rho – a pre-med honors society, the Healthcare Fund of the University Securities and Investment Team, External Affairs Committee of the HBA, Texas Spirits, and the Community Service Committee. Recently, Nivva has also served as the Fall Case Chair. Beyond that, Nivva has chaired McCombs Next Top Talent and will be serving as the Vice President of UBC in the fall. In addition, she is also in charge of the President’s round table which takes place on a monthly basis. Nivva is also involved in other smaller projects that she is passionate about and explains why she enjoys helping others, “I was involved in a lot of community service in high school, and not because it looked good on my resume – I know that’s a big reason – but I just really have a passion for turning around and helping people. That’s directly linked to my career goals.”
In some instances, Nivva explained she realized early on she had joined many organizations she wasn’t passionate about and started to feel like they were becoming a chore or work, a feeling that she never wanted to experience about another organization again. Volunteering and giving back is something Nivva is passionate about but she also understands that she is human, “I realize that I have to balance my time. I can’t be in everything.”
On her thoughts regarding how to decide on your priorities in relation to your goals, Nivva mentioned that you need to “have a reason and intention behind all of your actions, have a reason and intention behind the decisions you make and have courage in those decisions. Be malleable and accommodating with whatever you might decide on and understand that your interests and passions might change along the way.”
Witnessing her peers becoming increasingly involved as well and the toll that having too much on your plate can have on one’s psyche, Nivva became somewhat of a mental health advocate. “I do understand that it all sounds very overwhelming. If I weren’t in a good mental place it would be very hard to balance all of the different things that I’m interested in. It’s very ironic because I say all these things but if I’m not taking care of my own mental health, how can I be an advocate for it? It’s something that I had to work through most of my freshman year, especially going to my sophomore year. The biggest thing I took away from that is to not be ashamed of when you are having mental health problems. Realize that it’s completely normal, that everyone is going through these things and then equally; to be vocal about it and reach out when you need help and equally; have good support networks.”
This summer Nivva will be interning with Apple’s Americas Operations team in Austin. She’ll also be studying to do well on her MCAT. To alleviate some of the stresses of studying and work, Nivva looks forward to spending some quality time with her family in Houston on the weekends as well as going to some local music showcases in Austin in her spare time.