Meet Elina Deshpande! For Elina, a summer at WashU’s Pre-College Program did more than spark academic curiosity. That experience gave her a deeper connection to healthcare, service, and community, and set the tone for the journey she would later begin as a WashU student. She continues to draw on those early experiences as she balances academics, clinical work, and leadership roles on and off campus.

Name: Elina Deshpande
Current Status: Senior at Washington University in St. Louis
Major: Biology – Neuroscience 
Minors: Psychology and Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies
Program Year: 2021

As a rising senior on the Pre-Med track at WashU, Elina Deshpande has found ways to stay deeply involved both academically and beyond. During her first two years of college, she was part of the Ampersand Program, The Hallmarks of Cancer and Patient Care, a two-year immersive program that introduces first-year students to the interface of biology, human disease, and patient care.

Outside the classroom, she brings the same energy to her many roles across campus. She is a dancer on Chaahat, WashU’s competitive Bollywood Fusion dance team, and serves as Philanthropy and Social Awareness co-chair for Ashoka, the South Asian student association. She’s also on the senior council for APAMSA (Asian-Pacific American Medical Student Association), the Secretary/Risk Management Officer for Phi Delta Epsilon (the Pre-Medical Fraternity), and a Bear Ambassador for Undergraduate Admissions. Off campus, she is an undergraduate researcher in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and also a Patient Care Technician in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Stem Cell Transplant at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. In her free time, she loves reading, working out, trying new restaurants in St. Louis, and spending time with her friends and family when she travels back home to Oregon.

Elina’s WashU journey didn’t start with her first semester. It began the summer before, in the Pre-College Program. That experience, through the Healthcare Continuum Summer Institute, has stayed with her ever since.

"The Pre-College Program, that was a huge part of my ‘why.'"

As a Bear Ambassador, Elina often ends her campus tours by sharing the story of how she first found WashU, and why it still feels like the right place for her. “I always end my tour with a reflection of why I chose WashU,” she said, “and why I will continue to choose WashU for my entire undergraduate experience.”

What stood out most wasn’t just the academic rigor, but the community she found herself a part of. “Being a part of the program felt like being part of a family,” she shared, “a family driven by the exact same mission: being a catalyst for change in our communities, which was incredibly moving to me.”

One memory that still stands out is a talk given by Dr. Sarah Chavez, a speaker whose work left a lasting impression.

"One of my fondest memories was listening to Dr. Sarah Chavez speak about a project she had been working on for a long time, involving the mobilization of vans to provide mammograms for women in rural Missouri."

Dr. Chavez not only explained the key biological mechanisms involved with the cancers that inspired her work but also spoke from the heart about the human impact. That combination of science and service resonated deeply with Elina. 

“The emotional aspect of her story really stuck with me. I feel it truly speaks to the heart of St. Louis.”

She added, “Community and service are at the core of every St. Louisan and things that every person from this city will always dedicate their time to. This program highlighted that for me in the context of healthcare, but also never let us as students lose sight of the fact that we can have that same impact in any part of society that means a lot to our own story.”

It was that summer that she realized WashU was where she wanted to be.

“It was from that moment that I fell in love with WashU, and receiving my acceptance letter just under a year later felt like just the beginning of a journey to continue the work I had learned about in the Healthcare Continuum Summer Institute.”