Two students and an alumna of the Bachelor of Public Health program at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions have been selected for the 2023 UF Hall of Fame. Adetola Alonge, Shruti Kolli and Kylee Neeranjan are among just 25 graduating students selected for the award.
Presented by the Division of Student Life, the UF Hall of Fame is the highest recognition given to student leaders at the university and is reserved for those students who have shown truly superior leadership and achievement through their activities and scholarship.
“The B.P.H. program is so proud of Adetola, Shruti and Kylee for being named to the UF Hall of Fame! These students’ induction into the Hall of Fame demonstrates their commitment to the university, leadership and academic endeavors,” said Brittney Dixon, Ph.D., M.P.H., director of the Bachelor of Public Health program and a clinical assistant professor in the department of health services research, management and policy and in the social and behavioral sciences concentration. “It is a great honor to have two graduating seniors and an alumna of the B.P.H. program receiving such prestigious recognition.”
Adetola Alonge has held numerous roles in Student Government, including as chair of the Diversity Division, director of the Multicultural Affairs Cabinet and in positions within the Class Councils Agency. She currently serves as the chief of staff in the Student Government Cabinet. She is one of the directors of the Leadership Development Institute within the Black Student Union and is active in the Florida Cicerones. Alonge’s work on Parkinson’s disease as a research assistant in the lab of Habibeh Khoshbouei, Ph.D., Pharm.D., has led to her conducting research internships at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Weill Cornell Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania. Alonge also serves as a care coordinator for the UF Mobile Outreach Clinic, which provides free health care to medically underserved Gainesville-area residents.
Following graduation from the B.P.H. program this spring, Alonge plans to take a gap year to travel and work in health policy before applying to medical schools.
Shruti Kolli served as Illinois state leader for ContraCOVID, Inc. and founded the Gainesville branch of the group. ContraCOVID is a student-led national nonprofit dedicated to assisting Latinx and immigrant families during the pandemic through social and financial aid. She also founded Community Health-Oriented Mentorship Program, or CHOMP, the first mentoring program at UF that connects public health graduate students with undergraduates. Throughout her UF career, she has interned with the Health Disparities and Health Promotion Internship, transitioning this year to a paid position as internship manager. She also participated in UF’s Summer Undergraduate International Research Program in Madrid, Spain. Her nanotechnology research project focused on improving bioelectrodes that could be used to apply electrical stimulation in the body to regenerate neurons in patients with spinal cord injury. She later presented this work at Harvard University.
This fall, Kolli will enter medical school, where she hopes to pursue a joint M.D.-M.P.H. degree in order to continue her efforts to address large-scale health disparities among vulnerable communities.
Kylee Neeranjan is a third-year law student at the UF Levin College of Law who received her Bachelor of Public Health degree in 2020. As an undergraduate, she was the vice president of membership of the Panhellenic Council and was tapped into Florida Blue Key. As a law student, Neeranjan became the executive symposium editor of the Journal of Law and Public Policy and planned a symposium on reproductive rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Health decision. While serving as the vice president of community service of the John Marshall Bar Association, Neeranjan spearheaded UF Law’s Professional Clothing Closet to provide free professional clothing to any law student in need via donations made by Holland & Knight attorneys. In her role as president of Florida Blue Key, she oversaw operations for fall programming, including the 2022 Homecoming & Gator Growl, the Speech & Debate Tournament and Professions Days. Neeranjan also serves as an associate justice on UF Student Government’s Supreme Court.
Following her graduation this spring, Neeranjan will sit for the Florida Bar Exam and begin her career as a litigation associate at Holland & Knight, LLP in Fort Lauderdale.