2026 COMMENCEMENT SERIES | Finding Home and Serving Communities: Marquette engineering graduate shaped by family restaurants and global experiences

Prior to her time at Marquette, biomedical engineering senior Mira Kahate-Desouza had never attended a school for more than two years.

"Marquette is going to be the place I've stayed the longest," Kahate-Desouza says.

Born in California and raised in India, Kahate-Desouza's life has been filled with adventures spanning different continents. On the verge of graduating and moving onto her next adventure, she reflects on how Marquette and Milwaukee have offered her a special chapter of belonging amid an exciting life on the move.

Kahate-Desouza is recognized on Marquette's campus for her academic excellence, leadership of Marquette's chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and her caring friendship to many. To the wider Milwaukee community though, she may be better recognized as part of the family feeding the city with fresh Indian cuisine across multiple recent restaurant ventures.

Mira with her mom, Ruta, and sister, Indira

When not collaborating with peers in Engineering Hall or planning EWB's next water infrastructure project in Guatemala, Kahate-Desouza can often be found working at her family's popular local restaurant, Ruta's, which was located in Milwaukee's Walker's Point neighborhood and its previous location in the East Side's now-closed Crossroads Collective food hall.

Kahate-Desouza's family has become well known to Milwaukeeans in recent years for bringing new culinary offerings to the city as a brick-and-mortar restaurant and mainstay at local farmer's markets. But for Kahate-Desouza, feeding communities alongside her family has been a life-long and worldwide experience.

An upbringing across borders and cuisines

Kahate-Desouza moved with her family to India at 6 years of age when her parents chose to raise their children across cultures and open a restaurant to serve the communities of Goa, a state on the western coast.

With a little sister and supportive parents by her side, her upbringing featured mastering the service industry across multiple restaurants in India and frequent travel to explore the world.

"My first job was being a barista for my mom's café, and I had to look up at the espresso machine," Kahate-Desouza says. "My latte art really sucked at first."

Mira as a child with her parents and younger sister on their favorite beach in Goa.

Her family prioritized a rich cultural upbringing together, she says, so switching schools and lagging in parts of her curriculum were not uncommon. The family decided to return to the U.S. during her teenage years for a new environment and new restaurant ventures in Milwaukee. During that time, Kahate-Desouza determined biomedical engineering was the path she wanted to pursue but had doubts about the academic transition to college in the U.S.

Finding new service and more family at Marquette

"Mira has grown a lot in her time at Marquette, but we all immediately recognized her gifts and her ability to lead her peers," says Dr. Mark Federle, associate dean for academic affairs in the Opus College of Engineering. "Beyond her outstanding academic performance, she has been one of our most thoughtful, service-oriented engineering students."

Federle has come to know Kahate-Desouza well through her student leadership and deep involvement with EWB.

Alongside her passion for biomedical engineering, Kahate-Desouza was quickly enamored by the learning, community and meaningful service that the engineering student organization could offer. In fact, she cites meeting with EWB students at an admissions event as one of the key reasons she knew Marquette could be the right fit for her.

She has traveled to Guatemala twice with EWB to develop clean water infrastructure alongside the local community.

"Every project that I do, I now have a lens of how this is helping people," she says. "It has been integral for my development as an engineer, and I couldn't be more grateful."

Hartman, Kahate-Desouza and Federle at a recent engineering honors convocation.

In addition to framing her future work and helping to develop her service mindset, EWB is also where she developed lifelong relationships. Friendships, for sure, but also her life partner. Kahate-Desouza first met her fiancé, environmental engineering student Ben Hartman, at an EWB meeting.

The two will cross the stage together at Commencement, and shortly thereafter be wed with Federle, their shared mentor, serving as officiant. Her younger sister, Indira Kahate-Desouza, also a current environmental engineering student at Marquette, will be cheering the couple on at both milestone events.

Adventure continues

Following an exciting May, Kahate-Desouza will begin working as a technical solutions engineer at Epic Systems in Madison. She says she's excited to take on new challenges to combine her biomedical engineering skills with her service mindset, helping with the future of patient-provider logistics.

As her Marquette chapter closes, so does her time with Ruta's - both just for now, she assures. Ruta's closed shop in April, but the family is already planning its next venture to offer innovative cuisine with a new location West Allis. For Kahate-Desouza, she is keeping the door open for graduate school in the future and knows that she will always remain connected to her family and their mission to serve communities. After two decades spent in restaurants and communities around the globe, she knows just how adventurous and promising her future can be.

"My parents have encouraged me to pursue the path that I'm on as an engineer, or any path I choose for myself," she says. "And now I get to carry the entrepreneurial spirit from the restaurants into my future."