In college, I took initiative to write an SAT prep book. Unfortunately, most publishers dismissed my book proposal with one stating “I didn’t find Shaan’s writing or persona particularly engaging – he’s not a great writer.” After losing hope for a book deal, I decided to leverage my material and use extra scholarship money I had saved as initial capital to launch 2400 Expert SAT Prep. The 376-point average score improvement in the pilot class confirmed my “easy-to-read” text resonated well with students. When McGraw-Hill saw what I was building, the acquisitions editor offered me a book deal. Ironically, what I had originally wanted didn’t become a reality until I took initiative elsewhere. I plan to take similar initiative at Yale by assuming leadership roles and creating new student organizations.

In medical school, I continued to take initiative by developing an online SAT course. But there was one central challenge: McGraw-Hill now owned the copyright to my material. While most online test prep providers said “it won’t be possible to use that material in online SAT prep,” Yale alumni Chad Troutwine and Markus Moberg used their business acumen to secure a creative licensing deal with McGraw-Hill that packaged my book with every Veritas Prep online course. Similarly, I plan to enhance Yale’s academic community by creating meaningful partnership opportunities for students. For example, I’d like to help Yale medical students learn the business of health care through a lecture series in which Yale MBA students present topics such as hospital operations and physician leadership. I hope cross-campus collaborations such as this will enrich the greater Yale community beyond Evans Hall.