Our Job as Human Beings
TouroCOM Middletown Student Rishi Thaker Expounds on Role of Healthcare
My mom would pick us up from school, when we were younger, and we would have to go on her home health rounds. It had a profound impact because it showed us what a life in health care is really about. It's about caring for other people.
My dad grew up in a really poor family in India. It was a really tough upbringing for him, but he had his grandfather and his uncle as role models to realize that there was a way out. Touro's mission is to help in medically under-represented communities. That really resonated with me because I know that in my practice of medicine, that's a place where I can make the biggest impact.
A big part of the culture here is to develop strong student doctors and strong future leaders that will change the health care industry, and truly make an impact in society. I'm getting started with advocacy now. As a student leader, my big passion is trying to shape the future of health care. I'm on the governing council for the medical student section of the Medical Society of the State of New York. And I've been the president of the American Medical Association chapter here at Touro.
I feel a little blessed with my upbringing because I never wanted for food, the lights were always on, I had books to read. And then I went to India and I saw kids who looked exactly like me, but they were begging for food. I saw that I was one of the lucky ones, and that's why I never took my position, or my station, lightly.
Our job as human beings, not as medical students or as leaders, but as human beings, is to look out for one another. It's to value the life and potential in every single person. And that's why it's so important to advocate for the under-served.
TouroCOM Middletown Student Rishi Thaker was born into a healthcare family.
As a child, he accompanied his mother, a nurse, on her home health rounds after school. It was a formative experience.
“It showed us what a life of medicine is like,” Thaker recalled. “It’s about caring for other people.”
Thaker also recalls when he realized what type of doctor he wanted to become. While watching the nightly news on television with his father as an eight-year-old, he saw United States Senator Bill Frist, speaking. Thaker’s father gestured to the screen.
“My father said that Frist was a doctor,” Thaker explained. “That really affected me. It gave me a vision for what kind of impact I could have as a doctor.”
After graduating from the University of Texas-Austin with a degree in economics, Thaker attended Drexel University to pursue a Master’s in Public Health.
“I knew a background in public health would allow me to become a better doctor, especially given the larger health crisis America faces like diabetes and hypertension” said Thaker.
He joined TouroCOM in 2015 and was elected to be his class representative in his first year. He currently serves as the president of the American Medical Association chapter in TouroCOM Middletown along with a host of other positions.
“Touro’s mission is to help in medically underrepresented communities and that resonated with me,” said Thaker. “Our job as human beings is to look after one another and value the life and potential of every single person.”
