When Vrushangi Shah was in her second year at Saint Louis University, the private Jesuit research institution in Missouri, a professor, recognizing her academic gifts and strong involvement in campus life and beyond, encouraged her to go to graduate school.
He also encouraged Shah, who was pursuing a major in health management and a minor in public health, to apply for a healthcare administration fellowship following her master’s degree.
“I didn’t even know what a fellowship was,” Shah recalls.
With help from her academic adviser, Shah learned about fellowships and eventually completed one herself. Today, she is a national expert on these merit-based opportunities for advanced professional development and specialized training.
Dispensing
Shah, who earned a Master of Health Administration (MHA) degree from the USC Price School of Public Policy in 2022, is a host of “The Fellowship Review,” produced by the Philadelphia-based, peer-reviewed, open-access American Journal of Healthcare Strategy.
In the nearly two years since she began hosting the podcast, subscribers have grown 34% to around 5,000, she says. Meanwhile, she holds down a full-time day job as a program manager for the Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Program at UCLA Health.
Conversing on her podcast with leaders of U.S. healthcare systems and past and current fellowship recipients in 15- to 45-minute segments, Shah offers advice about how to find the right healthcare fellowships and building a career in healthcare administration.
“I wanted to find a way to give back to graduate students and early careerists,” she said. “One of the questions I always think about is, ‘How do I climb the mountain and make the view accessible to everyone who comes after me to build a career in healthcare administration?’”
Involvement and advocacy
Shah, an Indian American immigrant who came to the U.S. with her parents when she was 3, got a taste for summiting mountains, so to speak, during her undergraduate years at St. Louis University.
A Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholar, Shah founded and served as president of SLU’s Health Management and Policy Club and got involved in policy advocacy and public speaking.
She visited Capitol Hill with other students to meet with representatives and senators on both sides of the aisle to advocate for policies under consideration by Congress.
Shah also was invited to speak at the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice, the largest annual Catholic social justice gathering in the U.S., held every November in Washington, D.C.
‘Excellent representative’
Shah’s track record serving in leadership roles and participating in opportunities for growth and development continued when she arrived at USC Price in 2020.
“What really drew me to USC was one, to be close to my family, but I also spoke to a business law professor, Laurel Boone, and a marketing professor at SLU, Dawn Korte, and they both said USC’s brand name and alumni network would go a long way,” Shah recalled.
Phil Dalton, a professor of Practice of Health Policy and Management at USC Price, noted that Shah was instrumental in creating the first internal MHA Case competition to be offered at Price. She also served as co-president of the Healthcare Case Competition Club.
Dalton wrote a letter of recommendation for one of Shah’s fellowship applications, and she ended up being selected for a prestigious fellowship at UCLA Health.
“Vrushangi was an excellent representative of the MHA program,” Dalton said.
An outstanding TA
Shah served as a teaching assistant for a residency seminar class taught by Michael Low, an Associate Adjunct Professor.
“We were just coming out of COVID, and this was the first semester back in person, and we had the largest class yet, at 75 students,” Low recalled. “Vru and my other TA were outstanding in terms of organizing the class. They developed a grading template that subsequent TAs still use.
“As a student, Vru was thoughtful and proactive. Her class was taught entirely on Zoom, which was a significant adjustment, especially since these students had to secure residency during this virtual environment.”
In recognition of her service, Shah was named Best MHA Student.
“I’m very grateful for going through the MHA program at USC,” she said. “It really opened doors for me, and I hope other students who apply to this program can experience that, too.”
The summer after graduating from USC Price in 2022, Shah began her fellowship in hospital administration at UCLA Health, meeting with leaders and taking advantage of learning opportunities and projects in inpatient and outpatient settings.
A year later, she was hired full time at UCLA Health. In September 2024, Shah began her podcasting career. And was promoted to vice president and board member at the American Journal of Healthcare Strategy.
An acronym to live by
Now Shah is a guest lecturer at graduate programs, within professional groups, and at conferences, where she talks about an acronym she developed called BEAMS as a kind of signpost on the trail of life:
B is for believing in yourself. Only you have walked in your shoes. Only you know your heart’s true desires.
E is for enhance experience/connection/relationships. Relationships make the world go ’round, and your experiences, both good and bad, shape your life.
A is for aim for authenticity, not perfection. Perfection is an illusion; authenticity is a reality.
M is for mentors who take you with them. Everyone needs a mentor; seek out multiple ones.
S is for stories that aren’t just told, but ones that allow you to struggle and strive for greatness. Your story is your superpower. So, select the path for you because no one career fits all, nor does it guarantee success. Your work is your mission in this world. And no matter your career, you touch more lives than you realize.
