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At Yale, Angelin Mathew found a way to connect medicine and faith
After losing a friend to cancer, Angelin Mathew pursued medicine and theology at Yale, exploring faith’s role in end-of-life care.
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Pranavi Sharma - Thu, 29, May 2025
- 02:53 EDT
- 9
Angelin Mathew. / Yale
Angelin Mathew, who grew up in South Florida and spent her summers in Kerala, graduated from Yale College this month with a double major in molecular biology and humanities. During her time at Yale, she founded the Existential Flourishing Network, a global initiative focused on the role of religious belief in end-of-life care, work she plans to continue next year as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.
Mathew told Yale University that her college experience was shaped by a loss she experienced in high school: the death of a close friend from pancreatic cancer. “My whole college journey has really been about trying to live out this legacy and honor the friendship that we had,” she said. “This really hasn’t felt like work. It’s been more like a mission to me.”
That mission has led her to study both the human body and the spirit. At Yale, alongside her molecular biology major, she focused her humanities coursework on Buddhist-Christian comparative theology and earned a certificate in global health.
“I’m interested in the spiritual and existential side of medical care,” Mathew told Yale. “Especially as it deals with patients who have terminal illnesses and those interfacing with palliative care and facing end-of-life decisions.”
At Oxford, Mathew will pursue a degree in comparative theology and a second in medical anthropology. She hopes to study how religious beliefs influence how people understand and prepare for death. “What I’m really interested in is how understanding those beliefs helps us manage end of life,” she said.
She also plans to work with the U.K.’s National Palliative Care Council to study its Dying Matters Week, a campaign that encourages public dialogue around mortality. “My dream is to try and create something similar in the U.S.,” she said to Yale.
Mathew originally entered Yale intending to major in cell biology with the goal of going to medical school — a goal that still stands, with a focus now on global palliative care. But she says it took time to realize she could bring her interests in science and religion together.
It was through her thesis advisor, Ben Doolittle — a pastor and physician — that she first saw the connection. “He lives it every day,” she said. “I took his ‘Theology and Medicine’ class, which is co-taught by Mark Heim, who’s a theologian in Buddhist and Christian comparative theology. All I could think was: What are the odds? That is exactly what I’m interested in.”
To explore this intersection further, Mathew founded the Existential Flourishing Network. With support from Yale grants, she traveled to Bhutan and India to launch the project, which promotes awareness of how religious belief shapes experiences of dying.
In addition to her academic work, Mathew has researched cancer treatment affordability and technologies to support bedridden patients. She has also been active in campus life as a member of Timothy Dwight College. She helped organize a Model UN conference in Korea, volunteered at the student-run HAVEN Free Clinic, danced with Yale Kalaa, served on the Yale College Council Health Policy team, and was part of Yale Students for Christ.
“Yale has given me exactly the resources that I needed to flourish,” she told Yale. “With the connections between the humanities and STEM fields here, I’ve been able to pursue something every day that I think will ultimately help me serve people better, and that’s really important to me.”
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