On Monday, March 10, the Center for Emerging Markets (CEM) at Northeastern University celebrated the culmination of three years of its Srinivasan Family Awards student grant program with a reception attended by over two dozen past student and alumni awardees as well as several faculty mentors.
Supported by a generous gift from Venkat and Pratima Srinivasan, the Srinivasan Family Awards program allows undergraduate and graduate students and student clubs at Northeastern University to conduct research, create a startup, take part in a service-learning project, organize a conference, or pursue another innovative project that addresses pressing problems in one or more emerging markets around the world.
CEM has provided awards to 44 students pursuing 36 different projects since the program began in 2022. Awardees have represented nearly every college and school at Northeastern and both the Boston and Toronto campuses.
Four students and teams presented their work at Monday's reception, showcasing the impact they have had through their projects. Presenters also had an opportunity to gather feedback from peers and Dr. Srinivasan about how to potentially scale their efforts:
Abigail Williams ‘25, College of Health Sciences, studying cultural influences on maternal health to improve treatment of select diseases and labor-related injuries in Kenya.
Marjan Monfarednasab '25, D'Amore-McKim School of Business, leveraging AI thermal imaging to reduce pressure injuries in hospitals in India.
Carolina Pacheco-Balcazar ‘25, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Studying the market potential for solar home systems in rural Mexico.
Paloma Figueroa, Katie Tschoepe, Jake Ross, and Samuel Scroggie ‘25, College of Engineering, representing Innovators for Global Health (IGH), designing low-cost medical devices for Ghanaian healthcare facilities.
A heartfelt thank you to Dr. Venkat Srinivasan for his presence and guidance to our students. CEM eagerly anticipates the continued growth of this award program in the years to come.
Students interested in learning more can find information about the awards program below:
