An early diagnosis
unifier of pharma and government and patient groups in essentially funding research that then went into the development of these drugs,” Arya Singh said. “So I’ve collaborated with pharma companies for almost two decades now.”
In that time, she has learned that medical research can be difficult on the patients who volunteer to take experimental drugs. She brings her experience to her studies. In one class, “Communicating Pain,” she wrote a paper about “the pain that patients feel in clinical trials and how that’s often minimized in advertising of drugs.”
Her major is the history of science, medicine and public health. “It’s obviously very niche,” she said. “I love it. I’ve loved every single class.”
Her classes have included “Global Health: Responses and Challenges,” “Bioethics and Law” and “Media and Medicine in Modern America.” Other than last spring, when Yale did not issue grades because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she has received an A on each one.
She did so well in Forman’s “Health Economics and Public Policy” that this semester she is an undergraduate course assistant, creating lesson plans, acting as a go-between with students and running the online technology.
“In the all-around picture, she’s just astonishing,” Forman said. “I can’t imagine anyone being better. … She’s just objectively one of the most extraordinary students you could ever know.”
Forman said Singh has also helped raise awareness of SMA and disabilities. “She’s advanced people’s understanding of her disease and people with challenges,” he said. “She has really helped people understand challenges in ways that other people have not.”
Singh said her disease is about the middle of the spectrum, between types 2 and 3. “We thought she was a perfectly healthy child at birth,” said her mother. But by the age of 1, Arya was walking with a stiff-legged gait.
“All of a sudden, she would be standing and just crumbling under the weight of just standing and get badly injured,” Eng said. Singh was diagnosed with SMA two days before her brother Kiran was born. Neither he nor their sister, Tara, have the disease.
“She’s been blessed by a really great community, generally, of students and parents who are incredibly supportive,” Eng said. Singh attended the Friends Seminary in Manhattan, where she lives, a Quaker school that is the oldest coed school in New York City. When she graduated, she gave the commencement speech.