For Sami Raut, the journey to earning her Ph.D. in the United States required resilience and commitment.
According to Raut, she was the first woman from the Department of Zoology, Nagpur University, Nagpur, India—where she earned her B.S. and M.S.—to go on to attend graduate school in the U.S. She decided to pursue her degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Biology, but her resources were limited (and the overseas landscape was unfamiliar). That didn’t stop her, though.
“I came at a time when there was no help … I defied all odds and came here,” said Raut, associate professor in UAB’s Department of Biology and co-director for the Genetics and Genomics Sciences Undergraduate Program. “[I had no money] to pay for my GRE or TOEFL.”
After arriving on campus, she found her rhythm and was successful in her studies. So much so, she later became a faculty member in the department (after returning from a faculty position in northwest Georgia). Now, she is in a position to ensure that students across India are better prepared for their future higher education pathways than she was, while also empowering educators to provide more hands-on learning experiences.
“I felt like I should uplift a lot of other students,” said Raut. “They’re bright and brilliant, they just don’t know how to apply outside India. Over the years, I have helped countless numbers of students with their applications.”
Raut started pursuing international outreach work in India back in 2018. During that first visit, she offered workshops on gamifying learning in the classroom, and the work was met with great enthusiasm. Her outreach efforts across India blossomed in subsequent years with this past summer proving to be one of her busiest visits yet.
She kicked off her whirlwind tour with a visit to the Maharashtra State Faculty Development Academy (MSFDA) in Pune, India. She was invited to attend a workshop at the academy and made a big impression, fast.
“They invited me to one of the workshops, and they introduced me and they asked me to speak a little bit about myself,” said Raut. “I [mentioned] that I have been doing workshops.”
After the presentation, Dr. Nipul Vinayak, Indian Administrative Services and Executive Officer of MSFDA, invited her to serve as an external evaluator for the academy’s strategic plan. She also received invitations to facilitate workshops across the state of Maharashtra. She accepted those invitations and traveled far and wide, including to remote parts of the state.
“It was really heartwarming to reach people in those parts [of the state] that don’t have access to professional development,” said Raut. “I could see the gratitude in their eyes.”
She emphasized hands-on learning and community engagement with educators, and, so far, her efforts are making a difference. According to Raut, teachers are embracing active learning and group activities, and they’re encouraging students to explore their own communities. Serendipitously, Raut’s emphasis on active learning also aligned with India’s new education policy, which advocates for more innovative teaching methods given its rapid economic growth. Perhaps that’s why she received another significant invitation at the end of her time in Maharashtra.
“My final institution was in Mumbai, a few hours prior to my departure from India,” said Raut. “In the crowd were some people who were affiliated with Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBSCE) which is a national center of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). Last year, I was invited to give a talk at this institute which ranks as a premier institute that is engaged in science education endeavors … and they invited me [to come back in December] to deliver a plenary talk and also facilitate a workshop on community engagement.”
She will make the trip back to India in December and will be facilitating seminars and talks at the HBSCE epiSTEME conference, as well as at the Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research. Raut envisions this as another opportunity to share her UAB community engagement work, and she will also share her expertise in biology education research by highlighting her role with the professional organization Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER).
In addition, Raut plans to highlight and celebrate the many academic offerings at UAB (while also demystifying the application process).
“Whenever I do a workshop or an invited talk, my last few slides are also about how students can apply to UAB—what programs do we have here, where can you go for graduate school,” said Raut.
For Raut, it is all about reducing hurdles and ensuring students across India receive two things: a great education and a clearer path to higher education (graduate school, specifically). It is her hope that students from her hometown of Nagpur—and beyond—can see themselves succeeding in an international college context. And it seems her work is doing just that.
