Nandi Mehta Sets Sights on Global Scale
9/8/2015 11:00:00 AM | General, Women's Soccer, David G. Kabiller NU for Life Program
By: Preston Michelson, Northwestern Correspondent
Nandi Mehta has a lot on her mind. When asked about her future, she jets back and forth between sports, economics and travel.
She jokes about being the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, but that it's not really a joke. Maybe she could do global strategy with an international firm, she said. She could possibly even be a consultant for a hospital system.
"And honestly, down the line, I want to have a little restaurant and be the cook," she said. "That's my retirement job."
And that is not to mention that she has a list of six languages she wants to learn by the time she's 30. Mehta is already conversational in French.
The junior midfielder on the women's soccer team is not all dreams, though. She is already an active member of the Big Ten Commission on Student-Athlete Issues, is a co-president of the Northwestern Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and is a co-captain for her team. In January, she was selected one of three student-athlete representatives for the Big Ten in the NCAA autonomy process.
And in 2014, she was chosen as one of five junior student-athlete winners of the NU For Life Irving Kabiller Memorial Award for Excellence in Character, Commitment, and Community. As a winner, she received a $5,000 grant for her own professional development and she used it to attend the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in February and, over the summer, to work with a faculty member at the University of Geneva in Switzerland on reforming medical policy.
"From the sports analytics conference, I learned that I didn't want to do heavy analytics," she said. "However, I'm interested in the output side. I'm really interested in the legislative policy around sports and how to take those outputs of new sports science tools and how to apply them to athletes."
Mehta said that attending the conference allowed her to clarify what she wanted to do with her future.
"And then from the trip to Geneva, the biggest thing was that I loved the travel and the languages. It's just so much fun to be immersed in another culture and that was probably the biggest thing for me," she said.
Doing healthcare research in Switzerland also allowed Mehta to broaden her thinking about various issues. She said that having global perspectives allows her to come up with better solutions in life.
"What I do like doing is coming in and offering my advice to people, like strategy advice," she said. "Sort of like an external consultant, whether it's in hospital systems strategy or whether it's within the NCAA or an athletic department."
In addition to receiving the Kabiller Award, Mehta is also involved in the advisory committee for NU For Life, Northwestern Athletics' career preparation program which began in 2012 following a donation to Northwestern Athletics by David Kabiller, a member of the University's Board of Trustees, a former Wildcat tennis player, and the son of the Kabiller Award namesake, Irving.
"Nandi is an inspirational leader on our campus," said Scott Koenning, the assistant director of career enhancement and employer relations for Northwestern Athletics. "Via the Irving Kabiller Memorial Award, her incredible student-athlete experience has gone international. The transformational experiences she had in Switzerland and France will be hugely beneficial as she pursues her career goals."
Mehta is in her last season as a women's soccer player at Northwestern. After her time on the pitch is over, she'll be able to use these experiences from the Kabiller Award to make the next step into the professional realm.
"I wasn't limited to a small thinking space," she said. "That was the biggest thing for me."
Nandi Mehta has a lot on her mind. When asked about her future, she jets back and forth between sports, economics and travel.
She jokes about being the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, but that it's not really a joke. Maybe she could do global strategy with an international firm, she said. She could possibly even be a consultant for a hospital system.
"And honestly, down the line, I want to have a little restaurant and be the cook," she said. "That's my retirement job."
And that is not to mention that she has a list of six languages she wants to learn by the time she's 30. Mehta is already conversational in French.
The junior midfielder on the women's soccer team is not all dreams, though. She is already an active member of the Big Ten Commission on Student-Athlete Issues, is a co-president of the Northwestern Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and is a co-captain for her team. In January, she was selected one of three student-athlete representatives for the Big Ten in the NCAA autonomy process.
And in 2014, she was chosen as one of five junior student-athlete winners of the NU For Life Irving Kabiller Memorial Award for Excellence in Character, Commitment, and Community. As a winner, she received a $5,000 grant for her own professional development and she used it to attend the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in February and, over the summer, to work with a faculty member at the University of Geneva in Switzerland on reforming medical policy.
"From the sports analytics conference, I learned that I didn't want to do heavy analytics," she said. "However, I'm interested in the output side. I'm really interested in the legislative policy around sports and how to take those outputs of new sports science tools and how to apply them to athletes."
Mehta said that attending the conference allowed her to clarify what she wanted to do with her future.
"And then from the trip to Geneva, the biggest thing was that I loved the travel and the languages. It's just so much fun to be immersed in another culture and that was probably the biggest thing for me," she said.
Doing healthcare research in Switzerland also allowed Mehta to broaden her thinking about various issues. She said that having global perspectives allows her to come up with better solutions in life.
"What I do like doing is coming in and offering my advice to people, like strategy advice," she said. "Sort of like an external consultant, whether it's in hospital systems strategy or whether it's within the NCAA or an athletic department."
In addition to receiving the Kabiller Award, Mehta is also involved in the advisory committee for NU For Life, Northwestern Athletics' career preparation program which began in 2012 following a donation to Northwestern Athletics by David Kabiller, a member of the University's Board of Trustees, a former Wildcat tennis player, and the son of the Kabiller Award namesake, Irving.
"Nandi is an inspirational leader on our campus," said Scott Koenning, the assistant director of career enhancement and employer relations for Northwestern Athletics. "Via the Irving Kabiller Memorial Award, her incredible student-athlete experience has gone international. The transformational experiences she had in Switzerland and France will be hugely beneficial as she pursues her career goals."
Mehta is in her last season as a women's soccer player at Northwestern. After her time on the pitch is over, she'll be able to use these experiences from the Kabiller Award to make the next step into the professional realm.
"I wasn't limited to a small thinking space," she said. "That was the biggest thing for me."
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