Purdue May 2026 grad advances to medical school after making her mark on campus and beyond

Written By: Rebecca Hoffa, rhoffa@purdue.edu

Yasmin Pirbhai(Photo provided)

Whether she was leading a group of Boilermaker women to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, empowering the University Blood Initiative (UBI) to collect more than 1,000 units of blood, serving as president for the national championship equestrian team or helping students as a Resident Education Assistant, Yasmin Pirbhai’s giant leap in the Purdue University College of Health and Human Sciences (HHS) has reverberated throughout the university and beyond.

On May 16, Pirbhai will cross the stage in Elliott Hall of Music with highest distinction and begin her next chapter at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine in her hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Pirbhai will earn honors from both the John Martinson Honors College as well as the Nutrition Science Honors Program.

“What has shaped me the most in my time at Purdue has been working with the wide variety of people, making those connections and learning from everyone,” Pirbhai said.

The path toward nutrition

Pirbhai donates blood as part of the University Blood Initiative.(Photo provided)

While Pirbhai was always interested in science and health, it wasn’t until her father had a severe heart attack during her first year of high school that she found her path. Watching the direct influence her father’s doctor had on saving her father’s life made her realize that she wanted to be that person for other families.

“Seeing how he was really important in this in saving my father’s life, that was ultimately when I realized I wanted to be a doctor,” Pirbhai said.

Pirbhai noted her nutrition science major in the Department of Nutrition Science was a natural route for pursuing medical school because of the significant role nutrition plays in health.

“I didn’t want to just study biology like many people do,” Pirbhai said. “I had a track-and-field coach who had Type 2 diabetes, but it was almost entirely diet-related. That really inspired me to want to study nutrition. Purdue was academically rigorous while still having balance.”

In addition to her nutrition science courses, Pirbhai also got involved in research with John Burgess, associate professor of nutrition science, as part of the Nutrition Science Honors Program. For her thesis project she investigated the mechanism underlying the degeneration that causes diabetic peripheral neuropathy — a progressive nerve damage complication of diabetes — which furthered her interest in nutrition’s connection to health and disease, especially as she considers cardiology as a possible specialization in medical school.

“Food has a big impact on cardiovascular disease” Pirbhai said. “I want to be able to work in a field where nutrition is really important.”

A lasting impact

One of Pirbhai’s proudest accomplishments during her four years at Purdue has been the work she’s done with the University Blood Initiative student organization, of which she has been president since 2024. In leading the organization, she transformed it from a small group without an executive board to a group with roughly 500 members that has won Versiti’s university honors for Top Industry Collection and Most Lives Saved in the state of Indiana.

Pirbhai takes a photo on her horse as part of the Purdue equestrian team. (Photo provided)

“Seeing the growth and true impact we’ve made with the number of lives we’ve saved has been incredible,” Pirbhai said. “We have the numbers. It was 20 lives saved a month when I joined versus 120 a month this year. That is a huge difference, and I’m really proud of that.”

Pirbhai has also been heavily involved with Purdue’s equestrian team, for which she also served as president during her junior year. She not only got the team officially recognized as a club sport during that time but also saw the team win its first national title. This year, Pirbhai went to the national championships as an individual rider, which is extremely competitive.

“I didn’t really imagine I could go to nationals because it’s so hard to do, especially individually because you really can’t mess up,” Pirbhai said. “Being the president of the equestrian team has taught me more than anything else, just because of the amount of responsibility on my shoulders in that position.”

Beyond her activities, Pirbhai also led a group of Boilermaker women on a hike up Mount Kilimanjaro — a trek she has made now five times in her life, thanks to the safari company her parents run as a side business.

“I called my mom after she got off the mountain from hosting her own girlfriends’ hike, and we started planning it spring of my freshman year when I decided I was going to do this,” Pirbhai said. “Nine girls total from Purdue attempted to summit, and eight of us succeeded. It was awesome.”

Taking opportunities

Pirbhai (center) poses for a photo with the Block Party Advisory Board for Purdue’s volleyball team.(Photo provided)

Pirbhai’s list of involvement at Purdue extends well beyond UBI and the equestrian team and spans being an HHS Student Ambassador, serving on the Block Party Advisory Board for Purdue’s volleyball team, being a member of the Purdue for Life Foundation Student Board, serving as a resident education assistant with University Residences and more. For Pirbhai, looking back on her Purdue journey, the most significant moments came from taking every opportunity.

“I’ve really had incredible opportunities to do things that I feel like the average person doesn’t do, such as balancing a giant budget for an equestrian team that won the national championship or hosting all these blood drives, saving thousands of lives with the work that we’ve done on campus,” Pirbhai said. “I feel like Purdue really gave me the opportunity to do a lot of different things. So not only did I learn a lot in the classroom — because I did — but I also got really involved in in every opportunity I could.”