Page 40 - DAIS - DAISPORA ISSUE04

Alumni Trivia
Akshita graduated from DAIS in 2012
and is currently a Partnerships Officer at
AKSHITA the Afghanistan country office of the
United Nations World Food Programme
MEHRA (UN WFP). The WFP is the UN’s largest
humanitarian agency that provides food
assistance worldwide. Her role involves
Class of 2012 working with international governments
to advocate for support for the WFP’s
Afghanistan office.
CURRENTLY HIDDEN
READING : TALENT :
The Bee Sting Dancing
by Paul Murray
Educational Experiences
Akshita’s educational journey began at the J B Petit
High School for Girls. She remembers her time at
school fondly; especially because it nurtured
assertive young women who weren’t afraid to voice
their opinions.
Her time at DAIS provided an enriching experience
with exposure to the IB curriculum and its focus on
individual thought and analytical thinking. The
international education; her wonderful teachers and
peers; enabled her to sharpen the opinions she
voiced and put the confidence she’d built to better
use. She also credits DAIS with rigorously preparing
her for the challenges she would go on to face
academically at the London School of Economics
(LSE) and the Kennedy School at Harvard (HKS). A
special experience she looks back on fondly is
captaining Lion House; and watching the House
come together to win the House Cup in her final
year.
Her undergraduate education was a BSc in
International Relations at LSE. This was a
completely new academic space for Akshita but
driven by a multitude of things she was fascinated
by. She spent her time navigating the steep
learning curve by taking classes focused on
different regions of the world to develop a more
rounded understanding of the history of our
geopolitical landscape.
Finally, her Master’s degree in Public Policy at HKS
exposed her to wonderful teachers who invested a
lot of time interacting with her and the rest of the
diverse student body. Her work experience
between LSE and HKS really served to help her, and
the other students, contribute more to their own
BUCKET
LIST :
Visit at least 100
different countries
and each other’s experience during the program.
She looks back especially fondly on the school’s
public lecture series from real life practitioners as a
very rewarding part of the program.
Professional Experiences
Akshita has always known she wanted to work in
the international space, having been particularly
fascinated by the UN from a young age. At DAIS,
she would go on to Chair the Security Council at
DAIMUN 2010; which she feels influenced her to go
on to choose a degree in International Relations.
After graduating from LSE, she worked at a foreign
policy think tank in Mumbai (Gateway House) for
almost 2 years. She then moved on to Dasra, a
strategic philanthropy foundation, to gain more
visibility on India’s domestic issues as she felt this
would give her a deeper understanding of where
Indian interests sat globally; and the issues in
Indian policy. Here, she worked with the knowledge
creation and dissemination team and created
reports on issues like access to the justice system
in India. This is where her interest in policy was
truly sparked; and what led her to pursue her
Master in Public Policy at HKS.
Her second year at HKS included a thesis or Policy
Analysis Exercise with a real world client.
Previously, she had an internship at the Executive
Office of the UN Secretary General, where she had
met someone who worked for the World Food
Programme. She connected with this person to
write her thesis; and the development of that
relationship is what eventually led to her job with
the World Food Programme today.
She spent a year and half in Rome at WFP
headquarters; and is now based in Kabul as a
Partnerships officer, liaising with governments to
garner support for the WFP’s efforts in the region.