ARAD is delighted to welcome our new Program Associate, Shreya Sanjeev. Learn more about Shreya, what brings her to this role, and what she does outside her work and studies at TC!
Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from? What was your undergraduate degree focused on?
I grew up in Bangalore, India, and did most of my schooling and undergraduate studies there. I moved to Australia in 2012 for two years to pursue my master’s in marine biology and moved back to India soon after to work on marine conservation. I was mainly focused on studying dolphin behavior around anthropogenic stress. During this time, I also worked at a private university to help facilitate their environmental conservation activities. This led me to pursue a second master’s in environmental conservation education from New York University in 2019. I’ve lived in New York ever since.
What previous experiences have led you to your current role?
So far, all my roles have involved some degree of managerial responsibilities, especially my role in higher education involving interacting with students. When I worked at the university in Bangalore, interacting with so many undergraduate and postgraduate students and building programs with them was perhaps the most exciting facet of my job! It felt like we were building a community within the university and using our resources for critical social causes. In addition, I was leading various academic departments, which added greatly to my overall experience working in the higher education realm. I was exposed to the nuances of business and cinema very early on in life, and I developed a keen sense of interest in management and leadership. The ARAD program is not just a program in performing and visual arts but also the degrees of management and leadership in those spaces, which I found to be profoundly interesting!
How have those experiences informed your current professional path?
I am currently pursuing my doctoral program (Doctor of Education) at Teachers College. The amalgamation of my previous roles (in conservation and higher education) led me to pursue this degree. I am interested in researching and understanding how developing countries’ higher education institutions respond to sustainability and environmental preservation as a social movement. I also hope to work with multilateral organizations such as the United Nations in their Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI) to help Indian universities build their profiles and initiatives for environmental conservation.
What are you looking forward to in taking on this role?
As a doctoral student at Teachers College, you don’t get the opportunity to interact with many people apart from your cohort. I am really looking forward to interacting with students and faculty and helping develop the program in any way that I can!
What do you do outside of your time at TC?
In my free time, I take a lot of recreational classes around the city, and I mainly love kickboxing and dancing and usually take those classes more often. I also spend a lot of time taking long walks looking for good restaurants and coffee joints. But, if New York’s weather’s dreary, I just curl up with a good book and a hot cup of coffee!
Shreya Sanjeev is currently pursuing her doctoral studies at Teachers College in the Interdisciplinary Studies program focusing on sustainability and higher education in developing countries. She graduated with a triple-honors Master of Science from James Cook University, Australia, and a Master of Arts from New York University. She has interned at various organizations, including the United Nations Democracy Fund looking at projects within the Asia-Pacific region. Her professional interests include sustainability, management, and leadership in higher education.
Arts Administration 