Danish Javed

Hometown: Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan

Major: Nursing

Questions and Answers: 

What is a fun fact about your hometown?

• My hometown, Rahim Yar Khan, has around ten languages spoken across it despite being just one city. It’s also home to Patan Minara, a tower believed to have been built during Alexander the Great’s campaign through the region over 2,300 years ago, making it one of the oldest standing structures in the world. Most people, even from Pakistan, have never heard of it, and yet it is larger in land area than entire countries like Cyprus or Lebanon.

What are you looking forward to doing during your degree at UW-Madison?

• I’m really looking forward to getting involved in health-related research on campus, building on my interest in clinical research alongside my BSN/pre-med track. I’m also hoping to join Badger Volunteers through the Morgridge Center for Public Service, working on their public health track, since giving back to the local community feels like a natural extension of why I’m pursuing nursing in the first place.

  On a more personal note, I’ve never seen snow before. There are a few snowy places in Pakistan, but I’ve never been to one, so experiencing it for the first time in Madison is something I can’t wait for. And of course, I have to try real Wisconsin cheese curds, since I’ve heard the best ones in the world are made right around here.

Why do you believe that the King-Morgridge Scholars Program at UW-Madison is important to the institution, state, and world?

• For me, this program is about closing a pretty specific gap, honestly. There’s a ton of students out there who actually want to fix something back home and have the drive for it, but nobody’s giving them the resources or the shot to do it. KMSP fills that gap. It puts you at a real research university for four years and trusts you to go do something with it once you’re done.

  For UW-Madison, it means the university actually gets to live up to the “Wisconsin Idea,” the idea that education here shouldn’t stop at the classrooms and should go out and improve people’s lives. Having scholars who come from the actual problems everyone else studies from a distance makes that idea real.

  For Wisconsin, it means the state builds a reputation as a place that actually invests in fixing poverty around the world instead of just funding research about it. That kind of reputation is what pulls in the next wave of donors, partners, and talent.

  Zooming out even further, every scholar who comes through this and actually does well makes it that much easier for the next person to get picked, trusted, and given the same shot. So it’s not really about one scholarship changing one life. It’s more like each scholar is quietly proving the whole idea works, which matters if you want programs like this to keep existing and maybe even grow.

Are there specific issues in poverty alleviation or development that you would like to work on or are currently addressing?

• The issue I want to spend my career on is health equity in Pakistan. Growing up here, it’s impossible to ignore how much someone’s access to real healthcare depends on where they live or how much money their family has. That gap is something I want to close.

  That’s part of why I’m doing a combined BSN and pre-med track instead of choosing one. Nursing gives me the bedside, hands-on side of care. And pre-med gives me the clinical and research side. I want to understand what’s actually causing the problem and how to treat it. I want both halves.

  Long term, I want to use that combination to build more sustainable ways to get real care and treatment to underserved communities in Pakistan and beyond.

What do you like to do in your free time?

• I love going on long walks, just being out in nature and taking in life while everyone else is rushing around.

  I’m also really into writing, I like turning things I want to express into stories, and I’ve got one I’ve been slowly working on for a while now. And I have a big passion for history, so documentaries about the past are basically my go-to when I want to unwind.