Kraus Scholarship Awardee 2025
2025 Eileen Kraus Scholarship Awardee, Tasneem Zoghol.
Tasneem wrote her winning essay about Dr. Helen Smits Helen L. Smits — CT Women’s Hall of Fame, who she identified as one of her greatest inspirations. Tasneem aspires to not only be a physician, but like Dr. Smits, she dreams of being an advocate and catalyst for change, of making healthcare a right, and not a privilege, of improving the conditions of life in marginalized communities, and of curing vulnerable sick people.
As a student at Madina Academy in Windsor, Connecticut, Tasneem served in myriad leadership positions including Vice President of the Connecticut Association of National Honor Societies, and Vice President of her school’s student government. Driven by her passion for cultivating global health, Tasneem also participated in Model United Nations for all four years of high school, representing Japan in the UNICEF committee, and Kenya in the Commission on the Status of Women committee. She volunteered internationally for organizations where she assisted vulnerable children living in disadvantaged areas of the world suffering from health and economic disparities.
Furthermore, during high school, Tasneem competed in the National History Day Contest, a country-wide academic program which encourages middle and high school students to conduct original historical research and present their findings in local, state-wide, and national competitions. Alongside her group, Tasneem devised an original performance piece chronicling the life of Nellie Bly, an investigative journalist who, during the late nineteenth century, revealed the inhumane and injurious conditions at state psychiatric institutions. Tasneem and her group’s presentation placed 1st in her Region, 2nd in the State of Connecticut, and 9th Nationally. Tasneem is also very passionate about STEM and was a research assistant at UConn’s School of Medicine and participated in the CT Science and Engineering Fair for many years, where she won numerous state and national awards.
Tasneem has begun her first year at the University of Connecticut (UConn), as a Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences major and biology and global studies double minor. Through this interdisciplinary course of study, Tasneem aspires to galvanize change in the global health sphere and continue centering gender equity in her work.
To realize this goal while at the UCONN, Tasneem will serve as the Director of UConn’s Model UN AD HOC Committee and also plans to join UConn for Global Health Scholars.