Jarrad Aguirre

Aguirre__jarrad

“I have been fortunate in that, at critical stages in my life, I have had encouraging and caring mentors. Their support, combined with my work ethic, has made possible my achievements thus far.”

  • Program: 2009 Graduate Scholarship Recipient
  • Resides: Seattle, WA
  • Hometown: Denver, Colorado
  • Age: 23

Biography

PROFILE: Jarrad Aguirre is on a mission to reduce health disparities in the U.S. and abroad. As a youngster, the recent Yale honors graduate was a front-row witness to just how devastating the disparities can be to a struggling family. “Growing up, I watched my mother overcome breast cancer and a family friend die of AIDS. In both cases, substandard health care made their battle with illness more difficult and trying.” Those experiences, Jarrad said, convinced him that underprivileged individuals and communities suffer disproportionately from ill health, and he plans to devote his life to finding solutions.  The next chapter in Jarrad’s history will be written at Oxford, where he is currently studying.  

INSPIRATION: The mentor who influenced Jarrad the most was Richard Schottenfeld, the Master of Davenport College, the residential college where Jarrad lived as an undergraduate at Yale. “I came to college with a strong desire to enter medicine, and Master Schottenfeld helped me sharpen my interest and to believe that, with hard work and determination, I can make a lasting impact on health policy and public health.” 

ASPIRATION: The health disparities in his home community in Colorado, and those that Jarrad witnessed during his college years on service trips to different countries, have shaped his long-term goals. He will pursue a career in which he can address public health both domestically (in particular, minority health disparities) and internationally (with a focus on indigenous and refugee populations).

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Twice Jarrad has led groups of Yale students on service trips to Nepal, where they volunteered in Bal-Mandir, an orphanage. The students organized arts and crafts activities for the children, and donated 200 pairs of sandals, art supplies, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and boxes of lotions and anti-rash creams for the nursery. Upon returning to Yale, he arranged a photo exhibit, with the aim of educating his peers about Nepal and the challenges that Nepalese orphans face.

ACCOLADES: Jarrad was one of 32 Americans to receive a Rhodes Scholarship this past year. He was elected Phi Beta Kappa at the beginning of his junior year (an honor limited to less than 1% of his class). In addition Jarrad received the Alpheus Henry Snow Prize--awarded to the “senior who, through the combination of intellectual achievement, character, and personality, shall be adjudged by the faculty to have done the most for Yale by inspiring in his or her classmates an admiration and love for the best traditions of high scholarship.”   Finally, Jarrad was named to USA Today’s All-USA College Academic Team.

INTERESTING FACT: Jarrad’s known by his Yale classmates as a pretty fair hockey player, but few know he was a figure skater before he decided to take up the contact sport.

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