Centre College's Ibrahim Jadoon awarded Fulbright Fellowship

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Ibrahim Jadoon of Richmond

DANVILLE, KY (06/06/2013)(readMedia)-- Ibrahim Jadoon of Richmond, a May graduate of Centre College, was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship. He will spend the next year in Malaysia as an English language teaching assistant.

A biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) major, Jadoon says he was attracted to Malaysia by its "incredible diversity," both the biological diversity and also the religious diversity for a Muslim-majority country. Most Muslim-majority countries are something like 90 percent Muslim, he explains. Malaysia is more like 60 percent, with a large Buddhist minority population and smaller populations of Hindu, Christian, and other religious groups. He is eager to see "how the government interprets Islam and how they make it more inclusive," he says.

Originally from Pakistan, Jadoon finds it interesting that his first language, Urdu, shares the odd word with Bahasa Melayu, the national language of Malaysia. However, he appreciates that his Fulbright orientation will include basic language study.

Like many BMB majors, he had long planned on a medical career. But for him the Fulbright is no mere gap year. The chance to teach is what initially attracted him to the program.

"My passion in life is public health," he says, which means, he adds, "education." His dream degree is an M.D./M.Ph., a combination medical degree and master's in public health.

Health-related internships in South Africa and Ecuador after his first and second years at Centre convinced him of the importance of approaching medical issues not just through treatment of an individual's immediate problem, but through public health's emphasis on prevention.

"As a medical doctor, you treat at most 30 or 40 patients a day," he says. "But then I thought, how I can have a bigger impact? It's through educating people about health."

Among many pursuits at Centre, Jadoon cites his four years mentoring a local schoolboy and his work with the campus social justice organization CentrePeace as having been particularly influential. From his mentee and now friend, he learned that he could effect real change in at least one person's life. And while he acknowledges that the United States suffers from a challenging wealth of public health problems, he believes, in part because of his work with CentrePeace, that he will find his calling on the international stage.

"There are lot of injustices in the world," he says. "I think I can do a lot more if I go abroad."

Jadoon is the son of Asad and Yasmin Jadoon of Richmond and is a graduate of Model Laboratory School.

Centre College, founded in 1819, is a nationally ranked liberal arts college in Danville, Ky. Centre hosted its second Vice Presidential Debate on 10.11.12, and remains the smallest college in the smallest town ever to host a general election debate.