Priyanka Desirazu: A Conversation On STEM, Taking Chances, and Living at Full Speed
On a sunny day in June, I was excited to sit down and talk with Priyanka Desirazu. She came highly recommended to Women of Cincy: biomedical engineer, STEM mentor, race car driver, chef, and world traveler. She is empowering young women to take up STEM education and STEM careers. Priyanka recently won the ‘Leader of Impact’ Award from the Entrepreneurs of Success organization. She is a speaker at events such as Girl Start: Women in STEM Series, STEMlytical, STEM 4 Everyone, and HerSTEM.
Priyanka is also well-known for her talents, passions, and amazing theme parties. I quickly learned that she looks at every experience as an opportunity to learn and grow. She refuses to believe in obstacles and instead uses her encouragement and positivity to influence a whole new generation of women and STEM students. Priyanka isn’t afraid of a challenge and uses her experiences to inspire others to take chances and believe in their goals.
Interview by Kelsey Graham. Photography by Stacy Wegley.
Can you talk about growing up in India and what led you to Cincinnati?
I grew up in a place called Bengaluru, which is in the south of India. Our family, we had a lot of scientists and doctors and all of that growing up. My dad is a scientist, he’s a biochemist. My mom did her Ph.D. in Archaeology and Historical Sciences. So science was always something interesting, something I always wanted to do. Growing up our table mats were of the periodic table, and my dad used to quiz me and my cousins.
I finished 12th grade and knew I wanted to do engineering for sure. I loved mathematics. I loved computer science. I also loved biology and medicine. So I did an undergrad degree in Biotechnology Engineering in Bengaluru. I supplemented it with a lot of internships here in the U.S. My first summer I was at Harvard Medical School. The second year brought me to Washington University in St. Louis. These were different experiences – different internships and different labs. Both gave me more interest in biomedical engineering. My third year in college I did summer school at the University of Exeter in England, and that was a very different experience. It was an environmental engineering summer school because I was also interested in that a little bit, so I said let’s give it a shot. That summer school experience made me realize environmental engineering is something I’m really not interested in [laughs]. And that’s the advice I give the students I mentor, saying, “Make sure you know what you don’t want to do. That’s sometimes more important.” That’s what happened to me in my third year of engineering.
Johns Hopkins in Maryland was my dream school, that was the goal. It had the best Biomedical Engineering program. So, I started applying to different schools, hoping that Hopkins would come through. It did. That was a big day, a big moment of course. And that’s what got me here to the US permanently – to do my masters.
What was it like coming here as a young adult?
It took some time to kind of adjust and kind of get a sense… It’s a new country after all. But we have a lot of family, relatives, and friends here. Growing up I used to come here to visit family. And in fact, when I was in the seventh grade, my aunt who lives in St. Louis, she has a daughter the same age as me, she actually requested that the principal of the school allow me to go to school here for about two weeks. And that was really nice because I always heard about life in the U.S. and the education there. So right in the seventh grade I got a chance to just be a student here, just for two weeks. I think all of those kinds of experiences culminated into a very easy transition for me when I finally moved here. Everything coming together; that was the goal from day one. And that’s what I tell my students too, it’s a cumulative effect of everything coming together.
So two years at Hopkins… It was the most challenging in a great kind of way. I was a teaching assistant, I had to do research, and take extensive coursework. Two solid challenging years and then I moved to Cincinnati. Everyone asks, “Why would you pick Cincinnati?” The job is what got me here. I’ve been here now six years and I love it here. I was at Medpace for about two and a half years and then I moved to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. This November will be four years.
Can you talk about your work in the community as a STEM mentor?
I’ve been a STEM mentor for about 15 years. It’s something that I started when I was in the 11th or 12th grade. I had done a project at the University of Vermont, it was a worldwide project. We all worked on different teams and our project got third place and they asked us to come to the university for a week to do an engineering workshop. Once that competition was over, I had to be a mentor for the next batch of students. That's how the mentoring started, and it’s continued ever since.
Of course during the pandemic, virtual became the thing and that’s when I was able to reach out to a lot more people. I mentor for different organizations, some of which are not in Cincinnati. During the pandemic I also found a lot of students in or around the area, and that was nice. Virtual mentoring is helpful; it can be any time, any day, and you don’t need to figure out logistics of where to meet and all of that. So while the pandemic was very difficult for a lot of people – it still continues to be, it was for me too – I looked at this mentoring as an opportunity to be able to do more.
The students that I mentor are different ages and at different stages of thinking of STEM careers. There are some who are in the 6th or 7th grade who like science, who like math and who say “Hey we want to do something but can we do it? Should we do it?” There are some applying for college. Those are interesting because they already know kind of what they want to do. I take a look at their application, to see if it can be made better. Kind of run through why they want to apply to the program.
There are some who want to do STEM, are interested in STEM, but because of so many reasons, are kind of scared to apply to it. That’s where I come in. I want to be able to tell them, “If I can do it, you can do it.” The number of women and men in STEM is very, very uneven. And when I see that I’m like what is that main reason? So over the years my focus has become women in STEM in some way. I see the reasons and I hear the reasons from them and I’m like we should do something about that. Let’s get those numbers up a little bit, in whatever small way I can.
When people say, “Oh you’re a STEM mentor, you’re helping others,” sure, but I think it’s a two way street for sure. The amount of stuff I learn from them, just by their experiences, it’s very gratifying. All I do as a mentor is tell them about my experiences. Something that they can learn from, something that they can see. That’s been the goal, and that’s been interesting. I know it’s not an overnight process, but one more student, great, you’re making some difference in the community.
What I like to do is follow through, even when they get into college. So for me, it’s almost reliving my college days when I remember that excitement. I remember how I used to check my mail and be like did I get an acceptance…I remember all of that! So to see them do that, especially for those who never thought they’d be able to do a career in STEM, to see that happening is very, very fulfilling. I make sure to keep in touch and be a mentor even after they get into college. I think these kinds of mentoring relationships don’t have a timeline so to speak. You want to be there whenever a student reaches out. So I have a lot of kids who reach out and say, “Hey we’re thinking about this course, what do you think we should do?”
How did you get involved in being an AutoCross Car Racer?
Yeah, that’s a fun one. I have family here who are involved in autocross car racing. I think for 30-something years. So each time I went to their house I learned more about his racing. He’s been part of the Cincinnati region racing now for many, many years, and has gone to the national level, and a lot of accolades… Very inspiring.
For the first two years, they used to always invite me to the banquet ceremony, and I was one of the spectators. I said, “Hey this atmosphere is so interesting and it’s so charged, and it’s so fun,” and somewhere in the back of my mind I almost kind of pictured myself racing and being there in this award ceremony; it was just very cool to me.
So the interesting, kind of weird part is I only learned to drive in 2017. I never drove in India; I didn’t have to. I never drove in Baltimore because it was a college town and I used to get by… I had an aversion to driving, believe me. And each time I say this my friends are like, “You really… you never drove. What are you talking about?” [laughs]. Even one year in Cincinnati, I never drove. I got by through Ubers and Lyfts, that’s how much I didn’t want to do it. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d do something like that, but that family kind of motivated me. He said, “Just give it a shot. Let’s try it out.”
The interesting thing about autocross is you drive your own car. So I didn’t have to do any modifications to my car. I have a Toyota Yaris IA I8, let’s start at that. And that’s not a racing car. So he said just give it a shot. Come to the track, just have fun. Don’t worry about timing, don’t worry about winning. Just give it a shot.
There are different categories in autocross and they put you in categories based on your car model and things like that. Each person gets six times to do the track. It’s in a parking lot at Trader’s World. Every time they design a track with cones, so every time the track is different. So you get there, and you walk the track first to get a sense of what it is. Then when you race you always forget what it looks like, because when you walk it and the car are very, very different things, right? Then it’s your best time in six times.
So I did it the first time. My time was…a lot, because I took my time and kind of got a sense of the track. Then I said, forget about everyone else: let me try to make my time better with each round. Very simple. So, the first race happened and I just brought down the time as much as possible. It’s the most exhilarating feeling to be doing that. You’re not in one of those Nascar races, it’s not a track like that. It’s in the parking lot. The whole point is to get through as fast as possible, and if you knock off a cone, they add one second. And if you go off course, which is very easy to do because you don’t remember the course, then you get something called “did not finish.”
That kind of started it. I did six tournaments that year and the whole point is if you get 500 points in the entire year, you qualify for a championship trophy. So 2020 saw the first championship trophy. I decided to do it in 2021 again, did another five tournaments, got 500 points, and got the second championship trophy. Yesterday was my first race of the third season. So the hope and the goal is to get a hat trick and get those three trophies.
It’s very exhilarating. In some ways, when I see something, I see the disparity. And I like to try and think of changing it. When I’m on the track there are about 150-ish participants. These people have been racing for years. And there are about five women. When I first saw it, it’s a glaring disparity, for so many reasons. I tell my students this because I want them to know again – anyone can do it. A woman and a racing track arena don’t necessarily go together. You look at people like Danica Patrick – they’re awesome. So even if I get a few more women out there, just by me talking about this, I’d be happy. It’s been a really good experience.
What’s been the hardest part about your journey?
I’m very grateful and blessed to have all of these different kinds of opportunities, so it’s difficult for me to pinpoint what’s been hard. What I’ve had that really helps is just the spirit of wanting to explore and look for opportunity. Of course, family support, support from my friends, they all play a big, big part. With all of that together it would almost be wrong if I said something was wrong. I think everything put together, it’s been good so far.
What is your proudest accomplishment?
So for all of the mentoring efforts over the last 15 years, in 2020 I was nominated to be a part of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Achievers List. That was very exciting for me. This was something that was an effect of years worth of work. And when you start off work not looking for any kind of recognition, and then the recognition comes in, that’s when it throws you off in a great way. If I had started off mentoring saying, “I’m going to do mentoring so that I can win an award,” it just would’ve not made sense. And that’s probably the wrong approach to take. You do it because you want to do it. You do it because you want to help people. You want to do it to change someone’s life.
I didn’t make it to the list, but the nomination itself was a big boost of energy. And that led to so many other opportunities. That’s the thing, and that’s what I always tell my students: You never know what’s going to lead to something else good. Right after that, I was interviewed by so many other STEM organizations where I could help students directly. And that led to many other things. So for that reason I consider it as my proudest accomplishment because with that in hand, I was able to help a whole lot more students.
Your bio mentioned you love to travel. Where’s your favorite place to visit?
My dad and I do these trips, where he lives in India and I live here, so we meet kind of halfway. That way we’re exploring a new country and we get to spend time with each other. Of all of those, I think Iceland was one of my favorites. It’s a beautiful country. I think it’s also called the ‘Land of Fire and Ice’ because it’s so very varied. Naturewise, it’s very beautiful. You’re driving and you have waterfalls, you have these hot springs. I think that’s definitely on the list of one of my favorites.
I really enjoyed the Greece trip that I did. It was a solo trip. And just planning it out, I think I’m very excited about planning trips. That process is something else, you know? You kind of immerse yourself in that zone where you’re learning all about that place, you’re making an itinerary; it’s so much fun. And then when it actually happens it’s even better because it exceeds your expectations. The island of Santorini was one of the most luxuriously beautiful experiences I’ve had. You have the Aegean Sea completely surrounding you. There’s a tempestuous wind constantly blowing. You have beautiful views. Excellent food of course.
What else do you enjoy doing outside of work, mentoring, and traveling? I did see that you like to cook.
Yes, I do like to cook. I’ve always liked it, but again the pandemic. That’s when I started cooking more, and I think a lot of people did. I really enjoy cooking from scratch. That kind of became my motivation.
I remember starting off with croissants, and I know that’s a difficult-ish dish. It took me from start to finish 36 hours, and I’m not even joking. So a lot of my friends and family are like we can buy this at stores; no let’s make it from scratch. I really enjoy that. I look at it as almost an experiment, like a scientific experiment. If I do this, then this happens. If I take this off, what happens? There’s no yeast; we almost had a national shortage of yeast when the pandemic began, so how else can I get the effect of yeast? So I really enjoyed it, and just kept on doing more of it. I have a very close friend here, and during the pandemic, she tasted everything that I cooked, so I had a lot of feedback.
Who is an influential woman in your life?
Growing up and even today, my aunt, who is my mother’s sister. In various ways, especially after my mom passed away, she became the person who I looked up to. Just how she handled and continues to handle her life. I look at that and I gain a lot of inspiration from it.
Oftentimes we think of famous people, but I think sometimes we have to look at our closest circle. We have so many people inspiring us right there. And those are the ones who I believe can make a personal difference in your life. I always think that the people closest to you are your best mentors. They know you, and they should be recognized because oftentimes I’m asked, ‘“Who is the one person who you look up to?” and there are many of those.
So my aunt for sure. She continues to always, if anyone is in need, to cook for them, to drop them off at the airport. Little, little things like that make a lot of difference. So if I do anything like that now, it’s because I’ve seen her doing all that. It is a big part of who I am now, whether it is volunteering in different organizations, whether it’s volunteering my time, it is all from her.
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