Shaun Karakkattu is a second-year Cornelius Vanderbilt scholar at Vanderbilt University majoring in Economics and History. Karakkattu is an Indian-American who was born in Dubai and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. His interests lie in policy work specifically South Asia, Kerala’s economic model, and immigration politics. Shaun is a TEDx speaker, Presidential Gold Volunteer Awardee, and an intern at the State Department. He has previously interned at the Translational Genomics Research Institute and the Students Supporting Brain Tumor Research to raise money for cancer research. During the pandemic, Karakkattu created Youthomatic podcast and worked at PBS Newshour where he worked to share youth experiences in activism and research. Shaun is actively involved at Vanderbilt as a research assi...