Graduate of CPS: Kumar Karthik Ankasandra Naveen
Master of Professional Studies in Analytics
Where are you from, or where do you consider home?
I’m from India.
Three words to describe your experience at Northeastern:
Resilient. Curious. Purposeful.
What motivated you to continue through challenging times?
My motivation was always rooted in purpose. Pursuing a master’s degree was a dream I had carried long before I arrived in Boston, and the years I spent waiting to make it happen only made me more determined. Knowing that my mother believed in me from thousands of miles away gave me strength on the days I needed it most. What kept me going was also a deeper realization that grew during my cancer treatment: I wanted to use this degree to make a real difference in healthcare through data and technology. Every class I attended and every project I completed brought me one step closer to that goal.
What has your journey revealed to you about yourself?
My journey at Northeastern has revealed that I am far stronger than I ever imagined. Battling cancer while pursuing my degree, undergoing chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant while navigating life alone in a new country, showed me that the human spirit has a remarkable capacity to endure and push forward even in the darkest moments. I discovered that my passion for learning is not just a goal, but a lifeline. On days when my body was exhausted from treatment, it was my commitment to my education that gave me a reason to get up and show up. This journey taught me that challenges don’t define you. How you respond to them does.
Experiential learning is a core component of a Northeastern education. Describe some of the highlights for you.
Two projects stand out as the most defining highlights of my experiential learning journey. In my capstone, I developed a descriptive analytics framework focused on ethical and transparent decision-making in healthcare tourism by designing a conceptual dashboard to help organizational leaders make more informed and accountable decisions. In my integrated experiential learning project, I worked as part of a team analyzing opioid overdose trends across North America, building interactive Tableau and Power BI dashboards to translate complex public health data into actionable insights for policymakers and harm reduction organizations. Both experiences deepened my conviction: data is not just numbers. It is a tool for creating real change in the world.
Where do you imagine yourself five years from now?
I see myself working at the intersection of healthcare and data analytics, using technology to improve how patients understand and navigate their own care. My personal experience as a patient, studying my own medical reports, sparked my curiosity for this field, and I want to channel that into work that creates meaningful impact for others. I also hope to pursue a PhD someday, contributing original research that bridges the gap between lived patient experience and data-driven healthcare innovation.
I came to Boston with a goal, and I leave having exceeded it. To anyone navigating their own difficult season, your ambitions do not have to wait for perfect circumstances. Keep going.
Kumar Karthik Ankasandra Naveen
Is there anything else you wanted to say that we didn’t cover?
I am deeply grateful to my academic advisor Naomi Cottrelle, my professors at Northeastern, my mother, and my oncologist and medical team, whose care and support made this journey possible.
