In junior high, Nithya Gillipelli fell in love with the Spanish language and Hispanic culture. That led her to join Spanish-speaking organizations in high school and eventually the Center for Languages and Intercultural Communication at Rice.
In 2020, Gillipelli found herself on the TEDxYouth@Austin stage giving a talk about her work as a Spanish- interpreter at a Houston clinic.
“One of the biggest things in health care that can impact a patient's outcomes is the language barrier,” she said. “And there are so many people in Houston who aren't able to speak English, and a lot of physicians who aren't able to speak the native language of a lot of the patients that they see.”
The senior kinesiology major feels like everything is coming together in her senior year.
“I wanted to study kinesiology because I've been doing Indian classical dance all my life,” she said. “And I love just learning about how the body moves and everything about the body.”
“I'm pre-med so I really just love science in general’ she continued. “And with the Global Health Technologies minor, I was able to find my real passion, which is global health. It allowed me to combine my interest for Spanish, engineering and research all in one kind of program.”