Unconventional students at Rice: Fueling the next adventure

In six countries, Trent Navran, a McMurtry College senior from Ohio, has taken his interests in Eastern thought and global health straight to the source. In his first three years of college, he journeyed to Tibet; toured health facilities in India, Vietnam and South Africa; and volunteered in Ecuador and Peru. He taught street kids about nutrition, visited rural ICUs, conversed with monks about great Buddhist texts and lived in a South African township built in the apartheid era.

Navaran, a cognitive sciences major with a concentration in neuroscience, is one of a growing number of Rice students who go beyond the hedges to supplement their education abroad.