An alumnus of University of Hyderabad (UoH), Dr. Vamsee Krishnam Raju, who studied Master’s in Public Health (MPH) at the School of Medical Sciences, UoH, has been admitted to the prestigious Johns Hopkins University to pursue Masters in Applied Sciences with Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality as a specialization for the year 2021-22.

Dr. Vamsee Krishnam Raju

Dr. Vamsee, who is currently working as Operations Manager in the Department of Cornea and Refractive, at Narayana Nethralaya, Bangalore says, “I would like to thank my professors and staff from UoH for their continuous support and encouragement. I have also received an OPAL scholarship that amounts to 25% of the total fees.”

Dr. Vamsee Krishnam Raju is a native of Hyderabad, Telangana. He is a graduate of Dental Surgery (BDS). During his graduation, he started working as a Business process outsourcing (BPO) in Bangalore to share the burden of his family.

Due to food contamination, Vamsee suffered from a rare disease called Neurocysticercosis, where a tapeworm egg had reached his brain and settled in the right frontal lobe. This led to epilepsy and he had to discontinue his education in-between. He went into depression and was living in isolation. Later, he came across a Chennai-based NGO called BHUMI and started teaching underprivileged kids, made new friends, and ended up volunteering for them for three years.

Dr. Vamsee then wanted to educate more people about commonly neglected tropical diseases and decided to pursue Diploma in Nutrition and Health Education from Karnataka State Open University via the distance mode. He also joined Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan to learn Carnatic music and violin. Gradually, he became mentally strong and decided to complete his Dental Degree to make his parents proud, being the first doctor in the family.

Dr. Vamsee worked hard, achieved accolades, got selected for the prestigious Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) short-term studentship program, presented a paper in World Dental Congress, and published articles in reputed international journals with the help of his professors. He practiced dentistry for a few years and then felt the need to educate people about the importance of health on a larger scale. It is that time when he had an opportunity to look into the UoH advertisement in a local newspaper about its entrance examination. Vamsee wrote the exam and stood fifth in the entrance exam.

According to him, UoH is a place filled with a plethora of opportunities and he realized the importance of making use of those opportunities. He used to travel 60 kilometers every day from home to the University and back, taking MMTS (local) trains, auto, and buses to University, and feels proud to “never” have missed any class. Vamsee had participated in various extracurricular activities and took up leadership opportunities of being a class representative, Master of Ceremonies in National Workshops, anchoring in SUKOON (UoH annual students’ festival), doing commentary in cricket tournaments, and a lot more. Dr. Vamsee has won many prizes in different university-level competitions, such as essay writing competitions.

He also participated actively in election campaigns and volunteered for National Service Scheme (NSS) programs, Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, among other programs.

Talking about his journey at UoH, Dr. Vamsee said, “Taking admissions at UOH has changed my life forever. It taught me to get rid of my procrastination attitude and made me realize the value of life. It taught me to push harder and prove that nothing is impossible for a willing heart.”

He continued, “I would like to thank honorable Dean Prof. Prakash Babu, Dr. B R Shamanna, Dr. Ajitha Katta, Dr. Varalakshmi, Dr. Anita, Dr. Surya Durga Prasad, Prof. Srinivas, Prof. Reddanna, Prof. Appa Rao (honorable former VC), Prof. Rishi Bharadwaj (late), Prof. Geeta Vemuganti and all the staff members of School of Medical Sciences and assistant registrars office.

He added, “I hope my story acts as an inspiration for at least a few students.”

Edited by Soumya Sharma, Department of Communication, UoH.