Fourth-year Vanderbilt University School of Medicine student Ishan Asokan has been selected as an inaugural member of the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) Fellowship for students addressing HIV/AIDS and health disparities.
Asokan has been working at the Vanderbilt Comprehensive Care Clinic (VCCC) since his first year of medical school and will be using the clinic as the site of his 10-week internship.
The EJAF fellowship seeks to destigmatize HIV and provide care to those who otherwise would not be able to afford it.
Through the internship Asokan hopes to form a connection between VCCC and Nashville’s LGBTQ facility, OutCentral.
“One of the goals is to create a safe space and treatment facility for LGBT youth to access,” said Asokan. “It is really an empowerment project. We want to target at-risk adolescents between the ages of 20-24 and make sure that they have a haven to seek medical attention and receive necessary resources.”