Just a few weeks ago, Mihir Safaya-Babbar threw his graduation cap in the air, celebrating the culmination of four transformational years at Louisiana State University. While it marked the completion of a degree in biological sciences, it also signaled the beginning of a journey shaped by service, leadership and a commitment to seeing people beyond the walls of his future clinic.

A Mandeville native, Safaya-Babbar leaves LSU having built a legacy that reaches far beyond campus. As the co-founder and president of the LSU Red Cross Club, a member of LSU’s 2025 Homecoming Court and a dedicated student leader, Safaya-Babbar found purpose early in his college career, and then created space for others to find it, too.

During the fall of his freshman year, he explored a campus volunteer fair in search of service opportunities that could offer meaningful, real-world experience for a future in medicine.

That’s when he met a Red Cross volunteer recruiter.

“The Red Cross mission is to give hope on someone’s worst day. That’s something that stuck with me,” he said. “As a physician, you might only see a glimpse of someone’s life in the clinic. Through this work, you see what they’re facing at home and in their communities.”

Under Safaya-Babbar’s leadership, the LSU Red Cross Club organized six Sound the Alarm events, installing more than 650 free smoke alarms and helping make hundreds of homes safer across the region. Through these door-to-door efforts, he encountered neighbors whose realities challenged assumptions and reshaped his understanding of patient care.

He described visiting neighborhoods where families were managing with limited resources, homes in disrepair, limited access to air conditioning and other challenges that would never be visible during a routine appointment.

“These are the realities we have to face,” he said. “If someone comes into my future clinic, I need to understand what their life looks like outside of that visit and how to incorporate that into their care.”

Eye-opening, transformational moments defined Safaya-Babbar's time serving his community, but one stands out vividly.

During a Sound the Alarm event in a Baton Rouge-area apartment complex, student volunteers entered the community just weeks after a fatal home fire occurred there. Despite the recent tragedy, residents welcomed the volunteers with open arms and gratitude.

“Everyone understood how meaningful it was,” Safaya-Babbar said. “You’re standing in a place where something very real just happened, and you see why home fire prevention is so important. And you know that this smoke alarm could save a life tomorrow, one year from now, 10 years from now.”

To ensure the club would thrive long after his graduation, Safaya-Babbar intentionally focused on developing fellow student leaders.

“I didn’t want this to be something that ended when I left,” he said. “It was important that others understood the mission, had the resources and felt connected.”

Today, many of the club’s officers have spent years with the organization, building relationships with local Red Cross staff and volunteers and preparing to carry the mission forward. For Safaya-Babbar, the legacy of the LSU Red Cross Club is not measured only in numbers, but in the perspectives it changed, the leaders it developed and the lives it may one day save.

As Safaya-Babbar turns the page to his next chapter, medical school at LSU Health New Orleans, he carries those experiences with him. While it is too early to commit to a specialty, he is drawn to emergency medicine, a path that reflects the urgency, compassion and preparedness he cultivated through his Red Cross work.

The mission of the Red Cross, he said, will remain part of his life.

“The Baton Rouge team has already connected me with the New Orleans office,” Safaya-Babbar said.

He hopes to bring initiatives like Sound the Alarm into the medical school environment, continuing to expand the reach of prevention efforts and community engagement.

Looking back, Safaya-Babbar is quick to credit those who helped shape his journey, including Burk Hughes, Don Meyn, Capital-West Area volunteers and staff, and his family, who attended every Sound the Alarm event and supported him throughout his time at LSU.

“They’ve seen me grow as a leader,” he said. “I’m just really grateful to everyone at the Red Cross and to the communities that welcomed us.”

Long before stepping into a hospital, Safaya-Babbar has already made a lasting impact — one smoke alarm, one student leader and one hopeful moment at a time.