Care for community at the center of neuroscience grad’s leadership
Paresh Kolluru didn’t come to Tulane intending to be a student leader, but his care for his community made him one, anyway. Kolluru, a Tulane 34 recipient and Lafayette native who is graduating with a major in neuroscience from the School of Science and Engineering and a minor in philosophy from the School of Liberal Arts, moved into Wall Residential Hall his first year with another Louisianian and an international student as his roommates. They were all in a new environment, away from home for the first time, and they all wanted to find a community.
“I was seeing this in my own dorm room, how they felt like they were missing home, and how they needed to have some sort of connection. And I think that really expanded to feeling a responsibility, almost, to make it feel like a home,” he said.
To achieve that, Kolluru successfully ran for president of his residential hall. Once elected, he began organizing events to meet the needs and desires of all first-year students in the hall, working with campus partners like the Office of International Students and Scholars and student-run organizations. He also began getting more involved in other ways on campus and eventually rose to leadership roles as a delegate in Tulane Undergraduate Assembly, president of the Tulane chapter of Phi Delta Epsilon, president of the South Asian Association and treasurer of Tulane Research Network.
