Simone Samra’s dedication to education and community work is influenced by her mother's experience immigrating from India and her belief in the power of education for immigrant women.
Samra is keenly aware of the barriers immigrants face when attempting to transfer their education or degrees, often limiting their career options.
“If you don't get the opportunity to use your education in America, it can be very discouraging,” said Samra, who graduated from John H. Pitman High School in Turlock.
Her mother had to navigate how to support the family financially on one income.
“She had a nursing license in Punjab, but when she came here, it was difficult for her to transfer her education,” Samra said. “If she hadn't been able to, I don't know where my family would be.”
Her mother, a registered nurse, stressed the importance of education, and college was a given for Samra and her two sisters — the oldest a medical school graduate and the other running a mental health treatment center in Modesto.
Samra chose UC Merced over other UC campuses for its small class sizes and interdisciplinary approach to public health — courses that draw on the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities to promote health, prevent disease and improve quality of life through organized efforts.
She accepted her admission to UC Merced before ever seeing the campus. Attending Bobcat Day, the campus’s annual open house, sealed the deal.
“When I first got into UC Merced, I was nervous it would be too similar to my hometown,” she said. “Then I visited the campus, and I was amazed that there was something like this in the Valley. It felt completely different from where I grew up.”
Samra has embraced the opportunities UC Merced offers.
She spent her first summer working at the Community and Labor Center’s Labor Summer Internship — an eight-week, paid internship program where she learned the fundamentals of community and labor organizing.
She participated in epidemiology research with public health Professor Sandra Ha, focused on environmental health issues in Fresno.
She worked multiple campus jobs and participated in several clubs.
She founded EmpowerHER, a nonprofit pop-up clothing boutique providing unhoused people with essential clothing and hygiene items, and started a complementary campus organization that promotes educational opportunities for women
She spent the fall semester of 2025 at the University of California Washington Center — known as UCDC — interning with the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. The experience further ignited her passion to understand and dismantle systemic barriers to health equity and influenced her future goal to pursue health policy or health law, focusing on LGBTQ+ health rights and AI regulations in healthcare.
“I've used it to my full advantage. I feel like I wouldn't have been able to do all those things at the same time as my academics if I went to a big school,” she said.
Samra and her sister Nikita help run a community medical clinic for substance use and unhoused people called Vituity Cares in Modesto. The pop-up serves up to 300 individuals monthly, supported by volunteers and community health workers.
“Every month we offer medical care, haircuts, showers, food and activities for children. We have community health workers who come out from nearby hospitals, and we bring students from UC Merced to volunteer,” she said.
After graduating in May, she plans to study for the LSAT with the goal of starting law school in the fall of 2027.
Samra encourages students to get involved in meaningful campus activities and find opportunities that align with their interests.
“Stay true to what you would like to do in life. Get involved…find your niche and keep going," she said.
Brenda Ortiz
Senior Public Information Representative
Office: (209) 228-4203
Mobile: (209) 628-8263
