Student Experiences
Current Students
Several students have provided examples of past summers projects in the region. These span sectors as diverse as social enterprise, financial inclusion, education, social science research, public policy, nonprofit work, and technology. We invite you to consider any that interest you and also contact students directly.
Kaity Hsieh
TC 2015
kaity.hsieh@yale.edu
As part of GLBL 305, Social Enterprises in Developing Economies, I travelled to Delhi, India to do a 3-week project with two teammates. We worked with EKO Financial Services, a mobile banking start-up, spending most of our time learning about the company and conducting interviews. In the fall, we wrote a business school style case study on EKO.
Sampada KC
MC 2015
sampada.kc@yale.edu
I spent summer 2013 in Nepal on the South Asian Studies Travel Research Grant to fulfill a Davis Project for Peace. Details about the project undertaken:
https://www.middlebury.edu/projects-for-peace/projects
Ariella Kristal
TD 2014
ariella.kristal@yale.edu
I studied Gross National Happiness in Bhutan for a few weeks in the summer of 2013.
Evan Mullen
evan.mullen@yale.edu
I spent two months working with a small NGO called Calcutta Kids in a slum in Howrah (across the river from Kolkata). My job was to reorganize the NGO’s clinic and standardize their pediatric and prenatal care protocols.
Cory Myers
cory.myers@yale.edu
I was a field technician for the Nepal Wireless Networking Project and liaised with a contractor in the US.
Hannah Phelps
Trumbull 2016
hannah.phelps@yale.edu
I studied Hindi for eight weeks in Jaipur, India with the American Institute of Indian Studies. I lived with a host family, went to class during the week, and did some traveling around North India.
Ayeza R Qureshi
ayeza.qureshi@yale.edu
Yale School of Architecture, Masters of Environmental Design
Field work in Karachi was focused on developing a comprehensive review of how various actors associate and negotiate with the contemporary city of Karachi. The study was conducted through research at public and private archives and libraries, interviews with Government and non-Governmental organizations and individuals and through site visits to assess the quality of spatial information.
Rahul Singh
rahul.singh@yale.edu
I researched the economic vulnerability of India’s five largest cities while interning at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi.
Recent Alumni Working in South Asia
Many recent Yale College graduates have taken up research or professional appointments in South Asia. The graduates below have volunteered to advise students interested in their work.
Sonia Taneja
soniataneja2013@gmail.com
I am working on understanding mental health issues in women who are engaged in sex work in New Delhi and Kolkata - one community is a minority caste group that engages in intergenerational, familial prostitution and one community is from a brothel system in a red light district. I am trying to understand which demographic characteristics - like age of entry into sex work, current age, socioeconomic status, education level, and the community - predict more severe anxiety and depressive symptomology.
Indu Chelliah
indu.chelliah@gmail.com
Amaltas Consulting, Pvt. Ltd.
Amaltas is a small Delhi-based research and consulting company that focuses on health and development in South Asia. I am primarily working on an initiative to encourage effective Indian corporate investing in the nonprofit sector, and am also contributing to contract work for the Gates Foundation’s India team.
Deirdre Dlugoleski
ddlugoleski1991@gmail.com
I’m currently on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. I teach grades 6-9 in an Islamic girls school in Chennai (Tamil Nadu). In addition to the actual teaching component of the grant, the India ETA’s also write a research report on an education-related topic of their choice, complete an intensive language course (Tamil, in our case), attend English language training sessions, and engage with the community in some way. The Fulbright application is frustrating and kind of nerve-wracking, so if anybody thinking of applying/in the application process wants to contact me, I’d be happy to talk with them.
Ana Grajales
ana.grajales@aya.yale.edu
SELCO India
Social enterprise in solar industry
At SELCO I am an analyst, but I do everything from documentation and field visits, to project strategy and design. It is one of the first solar companies in India, and one that has had a commitment to innovation and fighting energy poverty. Feel free to contact me and I can elaborate, and pass on your information.
Nelson Mendoza
nelsonmendoza1@yahoo.com
Currently I work on CSR projects at the Mumbai office of Mahindra & Mahindra, Ltd., a conglomerate of companies that works in everything from the automotive, farm equipment, to IT and hospitality sectors.