Board
Board members plan and execute SAA's many events each year--from academic-political dialogue to Ghungroo, the largest student-run production at Harvard.
Board
Board members plan and execute SAA's many events each year--from academic-political dialogue to Ghungroo, the largest student-run production at Harvard.
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Fall Spotlights
See what community members were up to during the virtual fall semester!
Ajay Singh
Senior in Kirkland House studying Social Studies
This summer, he did thesis research on South Asian organizing in NYC, continued organizing with the Ethnic Studies Coalition at Harvard, and also helped with local work in Houston around Black Lives Matter and COVID relief.
Ajay added, "I’m taking time off this fall, which has given me space and time to really reflect on what the past few years have meant to me as I move into the last leg of my time at Harvard. Definitely looking forward to returning in the spring!"
During his free time in quarantine, he has been playing video games, meditating, and practicing self-care! His favorite South Asian food would have to be Punjabi Khadi or Chicken Biryani!
Juhee Goyal
Junior in Dunster House studying Bioengineering and Integrative Biology
This summer, she worked with a team at Mass. Eye and Ear on 3-D printed biodegradable grafts for ruptured eardrums and with a lab working on experimental evolution using yeast. This semester, she is looking forward to meaningfully engaging with the community as well as surviving the online semester with a healthy set of eyes.
In her quarantine given free time, she’s been going on long walks and hikes around her neighborhood and nearby reserves and gets to do a lot of wildlife spotting and meet many domestic animals! She loves rajma chawal (kidney bean daal and rice) and it’s always the first thing she eats when she goes back home to Indore, India. Her favorite South Asian city is definitely Indore, which she will always claim is the best place ever to grow up.
Divya Amirtharaj
Sophomore in Lowell House studying CS and Economics
She spent the past summer living in Santa Monica with friends while working as a software engineering intern at Intel. While there she learned (at least tried) how to surf, got stung by a stingray (battle scars!), and enjoyed socially distanced exploration of the ocean and trails in the area.
At Harvard, Divya is involved with HCCG, HPAIR, and SAA, and when not on Zoom she likes to cook (eat), swim, and play poker. Her favorite holiday is Navaratri, and loves all South Asian food but especially pav bhaji and rasmalai.
Shivi Aggarwal
Senior in Winthrop House studying Integrative Biology with a Secondary in Economics
Over the summer, she interned remotely at the Boston Consulting Group, working on projects related to the state and federal COVID-response. She also served as lead mentor for the Emerging Leaders Program at the Radcliffe Institute.
When not Zoom-hopping, she can be found playing Avalon late into the night or catching up on the latest season of The Good Place. She is a sucker for 90s - early 2000s Bollywood movies like DDLJ and Veer Zaara, though she also really liked the more recent film, Gunjan Saxena.
Sanika Mahajan
Senior in Mather House studying Social Studies with a Secondary in Global Health/Health Policy
This summer, Sanika was involved in community-focused work at the Healthy London Partnership, writing an NHS spec on violence reduction in care settings and understanding inequities in regions of London. She also chaired the COVID-19 Health Policy team, conducting research with the IOP for the cities of Houston and Kansas City.
She is really looking forward to writing her thesis this fall, and creating a community-based film on healing for survivors of violence through a cool creative writing course! In her free time, she loves to run/hike and has also been experimenting with lots of new recipes. She’s also currently reading "The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Beyond Survival"! She misses grabbing her favorite South Asian food, samosas, from the Square on a rainy or snowy day and will be in Cambridge soon if anyone wants to make a Chutney’s run with her!
Kazi Tasnim
Junior in Dunster House studying Bioengineering with a Citation in Spanish
This summer she was working at a Chilean Biotech Startup that has been focusing on developing a medical diagnostic software. This fall, she is looking forward to still working with this startup part-time and hopefully visiting Boston to see friends! She spends her free time in quarantine watching Netflix, face-timing friends, and playing video games. Her favorite South Asian food is chicken biryani and samosas!