Saloni Shringarpure, a senior majoring in biomedical engineering (BME) at the School of Science and Engineering, is passionate about medicine. A volunteer at the Hindu Temple of St. Louis health clinic and a certified emergency medical technician (EMT), she’s been providing health care to the community since her sophomore year.

As she prepares to graduate, Shringarpure shares how her service to others has helped nurture her love of science.

Since you’re from St. Louis, I have to ask: What high school did you go to?

Parkway North High School.

Why did you decide to study biomedical engineering?

I wanted to be a biomedical engineer before I knew I wanted to be in medicine. The integration of science, medicine, mathematics and engineering really drew me in. I’ve always been a person who loves to solve puzzles.

Later, as I diversified my interests and joined programs in high school where I shadowed doctors in hospitals, I realized I liked the medicine side more.

Have you been able to have similar experiences at SLU?

Absolutely. I got involved with the Hindu Temple of St. Louis health clinic during my sophomore year. I used to visit the temple and saw they had a clinic that I really wanted to become a part of. It's just really fun to work with patients one-on-one, direct their lab work and make their day a little better.

I recently got my EMT certification because I wanted to get more clinical experience. I had the chance to work in hospitals and ambulances and get a wide variety of medical training.

When you think back on your time at SLU, what are you most proud of?

My senior capstone project because of the amount of planning and effort that it took from my entire team. We worked well together and I love that we were able to go beyond our comfort zone.

We designed an intermittent pneumatic compression device for lymphedema. After surgery, they put cuffs on people’s legs to keep blood moving and prevent blood clots. We adapted that design for lymphedema, which causes lymphatic fluid to accumulate in the limbs. We didn’t have much experience with building a whole new device and coding for it, and I'm really proud we were able to find different resources on campus and learn on the fly.

What do you plan to do after graduation?

My goal is to go to medical school, but I’m taking a gap year before that. I want to get more experience working with doctors and performing procedures in a clinical setting. I would also love to spend more time with my friends who are still here at SLU and travel.

I’ll also continue working on a project for MEDLaunch, SLU’s nonprofit biomedical incubator. I’m creating an app called Aspiricare, which will help expecting mothers understand their risk for preeclampsia. My team is nearing the final stages of development and we’ll present it soon.