Organizing for health care
This is one in a series of profiles showcasing some of Harvard’s stellar graduates. Pedrag Stojicic was studying medicine in his native Serbia in 2005, planning to become a surgeon, when a girl approached him in a Belgrade café and told him he just might have saved her life. Stojicic wasn’t practicing medicine yet, but had helped to found a nonprofit that educated young Serbs about HIV/AIDS and urged them to get tested for the disease. The girl, worried that she was infected, was afraid to get tested until she heard Stojicic on television say that there was help even for those who were HIV-positive. Her results came back negative, but she thereafter took precautions. Stojicic never saw the girl again, but she affected his life as much as he did hers. The encounter convinced him that his future was in public health. Stojicic has taken a winding path from Serbia to Boston, where...