Graduates Achieve Beyond the Bubble

With most alumni of the Academy heading off to college or a busy gap year following graduation and a relaxing summer, the initial step of leaving Exeter and entering the larger world can be excitingly overwhelming. However, many young alumni are quick to involve themselves in their diverse passions and pursue their interests in meaningful and impactful ways. First in The Exonian’s alumni feature series is a story about Peter Kalugin’ 11, Rhodes Scholar-Elect, and Shinri Kamei ’12, entrepreneur and engineer.​Peter Kalugin ‘11Among only 32 men and women around the world recently elected for a Rhodes Scholarship this year, Peter Kalugin ’11, will take his plans to study pediatric oncology abroad at Oxford and develop his passions for biology and medicine, as well as working with children. Currently in his last year at Johns Hopkins University, Kalugin has been deeply involved with his academic interests as a pre-med while devoting a large chunk of his time off-campus to service abroad in different countries.Kalugin said that many things inspired him to apply for a Rhodes Scholarship, but among the reasons was the opportunity to meet extraordinary individuals and learn from and with them.“It’s basically an opportunity to meet a bunch of people you normally wouldn’t have a chance to meet in such a concentrated manner and really make connections across the field with people you know are going to be changing the world,” Kalugin said.He continued, “I studied abroad at Oxford actually as a sophomore, and it’s a beautiful place. It’s a great environment not just academically, but the whole city itself fosters connections between multiple fields. I applied because I really wanted to become a part of this community of people that istrying to change the world for the better.”Although Kalugin came to Exeter to pursue mathematics, by the time he arrived at Hopkins he had developed a passion for biology in addition to math. Part of the reason behind this new academic interest was his work as a data analyst at the only level-one trauma center in the state of New Mexico.“It was incredibly chaotic, and to be able to see the doctors coming and, in thirty seconds, know what every patient needs and set everything on the right track was incredibly inspiring. It really changed my mind about the whole thing,” Kalugin said.Declaring a double major in biology and math and becoming a pre-med student, Kalugin began to involve himself in research projects ranging in topical nature from cell biology work to tumor immunology. Last year, Kalugin co-published research that enabled visualization of calcium signaling in cilia with high detail and resolution.However, Kalugin does much more than being a dedicated scientist and future medical school student. Growing up in Russia until age five, then in various parts of Europe until age eleven when he moved to New Mexico, Kalugin “had to jump around from culture to culture and learn languages every year,” in his words.At Exeter, Kalugin involved himself with teaching local children how to play the saxophone. After graduating, Kalugin found more ways to combine his worldly knowledge with his passion for working with children. When he was studying abroad in the UK, he worked at a local primary school with a high immigrant children population, teaching students English.Kalugin taught basic reading and speaking to a Polish child who barely knew how to speak English. “Being able to watch him as he came into a foreign environment and learn how to interact and integrate himself into the culture reminded me of what I went through when I was younger,” Kalugin said.The following summer, Kalugin went to Mongolia to work at a children’s center with orphans and other children whose families could not take care of them. Just this past summer, inspired by his collective experiences, Kalugin organized trips at Hopkins to Nicaragua and Nepal, himself heading to the latter to give back to the community.Reflecting upon his time at Exeter, Kalugin believed that being at Exeter opened up his perspective. “You get to meet people, you get to hear ideas and you think about things in a way you never even thought was possible,” he said.

“You get to meet people, you get to hear ideas and you think about things in a way you never even thought was possible.”

“Without Exeter, I would have had a much tougher time understanding how the world works and being able to recognize the problems in it. Exeter really taught me to really actively try to see things from different sides.”After coming back from his post-graduate years at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, Kalugin plans to attend medical school. Afterwards, he will pursue a career in pediatric oncology.“First of all, I love working with kids, and I want to continue working with them. From a scientific perspective, pediatric cancers are very different from adult cancers and they develop for different reasons like one strong driver mutation or developmental defects that predispose certain tissues to cancer for different reasons,” Kalugin said, when asked about why he wanted to study pediatric oncology.In the long term, Kalugin also hopes to be involved in solving the very current problem of increasing access to cancer medication, especially in developing nations.“Even when the drugs become available, there’s going to be the question of delivering them. In the long run, I’d like to become involved in that side of things, in the policymaking and the public health aspects of cancer treatment delivery.”Shinri Kamei ‘12Alumna Shinri Kamei ’12, currently a junior at Dartmouth College, has been combining her visionary entrepreneurship with her engineering education to impact an area of society that people do not necessarily give much thought to. As the co-founder of Tray Bien, along with her friend and classmate Krystyna Miles, Kamei came up with an improved version of the traditional serving tray used in restaurants and bars that is more ergonomic and easier to use.The idea for Tray Bien, appropriately named so, came from Engineering 21, an introductory-level engineering course at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering. Students were split into smaller teams and charged with finding a solution to an engineering problem or need they observe in their world, following the theme of portability and mobility.After hours of coming up with ideas, Kamei’s team decided to make improvements to the serving tray.“We thought that it was something that was difficult to use but had long been given up on, and also identified it as a product that could potentially be easily and hugely improved through just using human-centered design principles,” Kamei said, reflecting on the origins of her product.From their idea as a starting point, Kamei’s team conducted research in local restaurants around Dartmouth in Hanover, NH. After identifying how much of a widespread problem tendonitis and carpal tunnel were among servers by talking to a waitress, Kamei and her teammates were more inspired in the direction they should take.“[The waitress’s] statement confirmed for us that the standard serving tray posed a real and meaningful problem, and we consulted an orthopedic specialist, who told us that maintaining a neutral (straight) wrist would decrease the likelihood of those injuries,” Kamei said.With the help of faculty at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, Kamei was able to further develop her ergonomic trays into a startup business idea. And since developing Tray Bien, Kamei has been incredibly successful in fundraising.Coming in first place among more than 100 teams in an entrepreneurship contest at Dartmouth College this past April, Kamei won $29,000 in startup capital. In addition, the online fundraising page for Tray Bien has raised over $20,000 with more than 200 “backers,” more than twice the amount for the original goal.While it has been challenging trying to balance a rigorous course load at Dartmouth with her other extracurricular and co-curricular activities in addition to devoting time to Tray Bien, Kamei appreciated what she has learned by being involved with the startup idea.“I definitely didn't expect to go to college and start selling trays, but it's probably been one of the most influential and meaningful experiences of my time at Dartmouth, if not my life,” she said.Going forward, Kamei hopes to keep an open perspective while staying involved in business.“Tray Bien has helped me realize that business strategy is something I can and do get really excited about, and I'm looking to go into management consulting immediately after graduation to work with strategy full time,” she said.Kamei continued, “I'm also hoping that the exposure to different industries through consulting will give me a sense of what industry is the best fit for my interests and skills in the long term. I would love to eventually do start-up work in that field and return to entrepreneurship.”