Megha Harish, BA Liberal Arts
"I majored in politics and took a minor in History. I also took modules in comparative literature, language, and theology alongside the Liberal Arts core modules. The best mark I received throughout my degree was for my first (and only) theology module in my final year. Liberal Arts gave me the opportunity to take risks and try new things – both academically, and through the internship module, Undergraduate Research Fellowship, and collaborations with other liberal arts departments across Europe.
I found that I kept finding ways to write about South Asian politics, history, and culture in my essays, across disciplines. So, after the BA I did an interdisciplinary MPhil in South Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge, where I worked on a collective biography of Indian women scientists of the 20th century. Two degrees later, I’m still really proud not to belong firmly to one academic school or discipline.
After finishing my MPhil, I taught European History at a Cambridge summer school and then moved back to India and began working full time with a global non-profit called Common Purpose.
I run a free online leadership development course for young people. The learning curve has been incredibly steep. I’ve had to figure out how to crowd-source information, collate data, put together a curriculum, manage stakeholders, secure sponsorship, plan and run events, manage people, be managed, and a whole load of stuff about Search Engine Optimization and Google algorithms. I get asked a lot how my degree is contributing to my work, and blessedly, I don’t even have to hedge the question. The BA in Liberal Arts taught me how to learn new and varied things both quickly and deeply. Three years of jumping into modules with single-honours students, doing liberal arts core modules, and making independent decisions within the degree has made me better at grasping new things, communicating them to different groups of people, and being comfortable with my unconventional role."
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