Urban Health PhD student wins top prize at the St. Gallen Symposium Global Essay Competition
Urban Health PhD student Rezwana Rahman (far right) delivered a three-minute lightning pitch, followed by rapid-fire questions at the symposium. She earned top prize as the competition’s top essayist.
Congratulations to urban health PhD student Rezwana Rahman, winner of the post-graduate Global Essay Competition at this year’s 54th St. Gallen Symposium (external link) in Switzerland!
Rahman earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN ‘19) and Master of Nursing (MN ’24) at Toronto Metropolitan University. She’s now pursuing a PhD in urban health — with research focused on the “duality of care” shouldered by second-generation Muslim and South Asian immigrants who simultaneously raise children and support aging parents.
Clinically, Rahman had seen how language and faith can transform patient outcomes. Passionate about building inclusive, tech-enabled caregiving systems that honour faith, language, and community for diverse urban populations, she found SaraaSits, an AI-powered platform that matches families and caregivers in faith-based, culturally responsive care.
What was your award-winning essay topic?
Culturally and faith-aligned caregiving. It’s a huge gap in health care. I’ve lived it. I skipped university classes to translate at medical appointment for my Bengali-speaking father. Later, as a personal-support worker, I saw patients mismatched with care staff that didn’t speak their language — even when other workers who spoke their languages were available. Better matching elders with caregivers who share their language, food and faith is a simple, high-impact fix.
What does winning the competition mean to you?
It felt like the world finally said “yes” to a problem I had once thought only my family faced. It was proof that culturally attuned solutions belong on the global agenda. The prize is more than validation; it’s a mandate to finish my dissertation, scale my business, and press policymakers to treat care as critical infrastructure — so that no family is lost in translation
“Winning the competition transformed my private struggle into a public mission to help build a compassionate, culturally fluent care system for today’s elders and the generations to follow.”
Impressions on the symposium?
Being there was life-changing. I spent four fully-funded days in Switzerland engaging in frank, intergenerational dialogue with global CEOs, policymakers, scholars and 199 other “leaders of tomorrow” from every corner of the world.
Best memory?
Sharing the stage with the competition’s two runners up, and immediately planning a joint paper afterward that braids our three themes into a vision of an ideal future: culturally attuned caregiving, AI-driven climate resilience, and decentralized proof-of-location for data security. I left with unshakable conviction that despite today’s polarised headlines, the future is in very capable and collaborative hands.
Research and innovation potential for nurses?
Nurses have a unique vantage point that’s a gold mine for research questions and entrepreneurial ideas. Yet the profession has traditionally ceded innovation to others. This must change.
Being 24-7 at bedside, nurses witness unmet needs the moment they arise. Empowering nurses with research training, seed funding, and venture creation pathways would unlock practical, patient-centred innovations— from workflow-saving apps to culturally tailored care models — that no outsider could design with equal insight.
“Nurses are not just caretakers; we are untapped engines of discovery and enterprise. Healthcare’s future will be safer, smarter and more equitable when our profession’s full creative power is brought to the fore.”
Curious about the Urban Health PhD? Check out the program website.