Long before the sounds of celebration reverberate across the University of Chicago campus this weekend, the spirit of Convocation fills the air.
There’s levity, some anxiety and maybe a bit of wistfulness—but more than anything, a buzz of excitement for all that lies ahead. As the Class of 2025 prepares to graduate, some reflected on their time at UChicago and the varied paths taken in their academic careers.
From immersing with monks to launching startups and fighting the opioid epidemic, these transformative experiences defined their time at UChicago. Discover some of the stories of the Class of 2025 below:
Eshan Dosani, the College
Eshan Dosani, graduating with majors in economics and political science, has his post-College plans well in motion.
After launching automated medical note-taking startup Perspectives Health with three partners in late 2024, Dosani and his group have secured funding to develop a software tool to help behavioral health providers spend more time with patients and less on administrative work. It’s currently being piloted in three clinics in three states across the country.
This undertaking is well-aligned with the work that Dosani, a first-generation college student, has tackled throughout his time at UChicago—reducing the number of “deaths of despair” caused by drug overdose, suicide and alcohol abuse, particularly in Chicago and the Appalachian region of the United States.
“I’m focused on the kinds of suffering that arise when people are cut off from stability—whether that’s housing, treatment or community. These challenges are hard, but they’re not inevitable,” said Dosani. “I’ve tried to use UChicago’s resources to figure out what actually helps and to push those ideas forward.”
Dosani has conducted research on substance use disorders with Prof. Harold Pollack of the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice. He also founded the UChicago Harm Reduction Project, which provided more than 5,000 kits containing the life-saving medicine Narcan to areas hardest hit by the opioid crisis over the past two years.
During his time at the College, he co-published multiple articles with Pollack, worked at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and founded the Appalseed Fund—an initiative that provides security deposit assistance to families in rural Appalachia.
The Fund has already helped more than 30 individuals transition from housing insecurity into stable homes.
Priya Gupta, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Priya Abigail Gupta began her professional journey as an emergency medical technician in high school, working on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While she initially planned to become a physician, she soon recognized that many of the challenges her patients faced went beyond clinical care. Witnessing systemic needs related to housing, food insecurity and insurance led her to pursue social work.
“Through their voices and stories, I started to feel a pull towards a career where I could work on these issues,” Gupta said.
Gupta is graduating with a master’s in social work, social policy and social administration, with a certificate in health administration and policy through the Graduate Program in Health Administration and Policy at the Crown Family School. She was awarded the 2025 Solomon O. Lichter Memorial Prize and the George Bugbee Advocacy Award from UChicago.
She credits the Crown Family School’s strong emphasis on policy and administration and the openness and support of its faculty for shaping her experience and professional goals. A two-time published author, Gupta is deeply committed to improving public health insurance systems, particularly Medicaid, to advance more equitable health outcomes.
Following graduation, Gupta will embark on a prestigious two-year administrative fellowship with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, working in the Insurance Services Division.
In her personal life, she’s the proud mother of two “crazy” cats who keep life interesting. She is deeply grateful to her close friends and family for their unwavering support.
“Life is tough, but you are tougher,” said Gupta, reflecting on her time at UChicago. “Never let anything or anyone deter you from what you believe in and your belief in yourself.”
Taryn Kim, the College
Taryn Kim’s experience working with underserved students in high school and during her gap year guided her path forward at UChicago.
Kim’s academic work, majoring in public policy studies and sociology with a minor in education and society, was complemented by extensive fieldwork and research within Chicago Public Schools. She wants to understand how to change a traditional, monolithic system to better address the nuanced and comprehensive needs of students.
“One of UChicago’s strengths is not only teaching us these big, complicated, theoretical ideas—but giving us the opportunity to really apply them. As I look back on my college career, I was so fortunate to access education through teaching, through research, through policy making, and through collaboration with districts and schools,” said Kim. “The University has given me so many opportunities and supports that have allowed me to pursue my passion.”
During her time at UChicago, Kim was able to learn about alternative, learner-centered education across the city by collaborating with teachers at the University’s To&Through Project and traveling to underserved schools with the Harris School of Public Policy’s Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab.
She also took internships with Chicago-based nonprofits, teaching refugee students at GirlForward and researching early childhood education at Advance Illinois, with support from UChicago’s John Metcalf Internship Program.
Most recently, she completed an honors thesis exploring teacher retention in Chicago during the COVID-19 pandemic, aided by funding from the UChicago Committee of Education’s Marylyn C. Grabosky Prize for Undergraduate Research.
The Pasadena, California, native plans to work in the nonprofit education sector before attending law school, with a goal of leading legislative efforts for national education reform.
Denita Kiya, the Law School
Denita Kiya pursued law school for two reasons: She wanted to build a career where she could apply “world-building” ideas, and she wanted to experience true intellectual rigor.
Now, Kiya said she is leaving the Law School with more questions than answers—but also with an expanded curiosity and drive for knowledge.
“Thinking about my time here, I am most proud of showing up,” she reflected. “I am a first-generation college and law student, an immigrant and a child of political refugees. I am proud that I believed both in my abilities and that I deserved to be at a prestigious institution like UChicago.”
During her time here, Kiya made it a priority to learn about the community around her. A California native, she dove into the student organization Impact Initiative, which focuses on developing relationships between the University and South Side neighborhoods through community service and pro-bono activities.
In her second year, she became president of the group and helped organize a service project with Woodlawn Botanical Nature Center, just steps from the Law School.
“It was important to me to support the geographical area that the Law School is located in, especially because the area is underserved and underfunded,” she said. “I also felt strongly about teaching our fellow law students that community service is central to our careers as advocates, especially because we are often tasked with advocating for underserved communities.”
Kiya is moving back to her home state after graduation to work as an associate at Jones Day.
“I hope to continue developing strategic and analytical skills, to follow my curiosity, and to give back to my community always,” she said.
Pengju Li, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering
During his time at UChicago PME, Pengju Li turned his skills to the power of invention.
The recent Ph.D. recipient focused on developing minimally invasive, light-controlled devices to influence heart and brain functions. His work has already led to such breakthroughs as an ultra-thin pacemaker controlled by light and “living bioelectronics” that can sense and heal skin.
For his work in the lab of UChicago chemistry Prof. Bozhi Tian, Li has taken such honors as the MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 Asia-Pacific, an MRS Graduate Student Gold Award, ACS DIC Young Investigator Award, William Rainey Harper Dissertation Fellowship and the Grier Prize for Innovative Research in Biophysical Science.
Li is soon heading to Princeton University as a postdoctoral researcher, where he plans to explore the biophysics of the subcellular world to find new strategies for modulating cellular processes.
“UChicago PME is where engineering meets real-world impact, from health care to energy,” Li said. “If you're driven to tackle meaningful challenges alongside brilliant peers and mentors who truly care, this is the place for you.”
George Rose, the College
After graduating with a bachelor’s of science in molecular engineering, George Rose will be staying in Chicago working on Rise Reforming—a startup he created with fellow PME graduate Lucas Zubillaga and rising fourth-year student Jona van Oord.
The company has developed a proprietary process for turning plastic waste into high-quality chemicals used by laboratories around the world, such as carbon-negative dimethyl ether. They’ve already raised more than $400,000 in funding for this novel approach to what they call “the plastic disaster.”
To do this, the trio reached across UChicago, finding partners and mentors in the PME, the College, the Booth School of Business and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
None of this would have been possible in the siloed structure found in many other engineering schools, Rose said.
“I found UChicago PME’s Molecular Engineering major extremely helpful because of its interdisciplinary approach,” Rose said. “In a traditional engineering program, I probably wouldn’t have ever taken a biology class and discovered an interest in synthetic biology. But the strength of the molecular engineering degree is that it forces you to try all the areas out and really find your niche.”
Victor Sosa, Booth School of Business
When explaining his work, Victor Sosa thinks of himself as a “shapeshifter.”
It’s a fitting description for someone whose career has spanned the corporate world to private banking, top-tier consulting to start-ups and entrepreneurship.
Sosa came to Booth with goals of diving deeper into entrepreneurship while growing as a person and a leader. Now, as he prepares for Convocation, Sosa said the courses, community and feedback provided by the University gave him the opportunities he needed to fulfill those missions.
“I learned how to sit with failure, how others perceive me, and how to lead with authenticity,” he reflected. “I leave with a sharper understanding of the start-up world and of myself.”
At Booth, Sosa served as co-chair of the Latin American Business Group. He said the “vibrant, tight-knit community” of the group helped him feel right at home on campus and was a highlight of his time at the University. So too was his experience at the Kilts Center Product Challenge, which he won with his analysis of a Microsoft product and strong presentation of strategic recommendations to the company’s senior leadership.
“Winning the competition was incredibly rewarding, but what truly stayed with me was how much I enjoyed merging product thinking with strategic problem-solving,” he said. “In the future, I’d love to take a second leap into entrepreneurship, and maybe even build something of my own.”
Walton Yan, the College
Walton Yan arrived at UChicago with a fascination for the past—and quickly immersed himself in the religious art and artifacts of ancient Greece and Byzantium.
A triple major in religious studies, art history and Germanic studies, Yan centered his experience in the College around pre-modern Greek art, combining art, theology and cultural memory in his research.
One of the most formative experiences of this time was a 2024 summer research trip to Germany, Italy and Greece, funded by the College’s Jonathan Z. Smith and Charles Gray fellowships. With the guidance of his advisor, Assoc. Prof. Karin Krause, Yan traveled to Mount Athos, a monastic peninsula in northeastern Greece that has been a center of Orthodox Christian devotion for more than a thousand years.
There, he lived among monks at St. Gregorios Monastery, attending the Divine Liturgy and experiencing sacred art not as static museum objects, but as living presences embedded in ritual, devotion and community.
“I was struck not just by what I was seeing, but how I was seeing,” Yan said. “Icons weren’t merely viewed—they were kissed, touched, approached with reverence. The art came alive in ways that fundamentally changed how I think about religious images.”
This fall, Yan will begin his Ph.D. in the history of art at Yale University, where he plans to continue his research on Greek and Byzantine art. He describes UChicago, home to the world-renowned Divinity School, as an unparalleled place to pursue big questions.
“It’s not just that the University taught me to think. It taught me how to listen, especially to voices from the past that still shape our world today,” he said. “There is an urgency to this work—especially in moments of global crisis—because the past often speaks when we are at a loss for words.”
By Andrew Haffner, Katelyn Yoshimoto, Tonishea Jackson, Nadia Alfadel Coloma, Paul Dailing, Erin Keane Scott
