Elahe Popat Anjarwalla (B.A. 2013)

BA ‘13 in Communication and Modern Languages

Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elahepopat
Twitter: @ElaheAnjarwalla

Tell us about your Stanford degree and what you are doing now. 

I majored in Communication and did a minor in Modern Languages (French & Hindi). I am from Kenya so after graduation, I moved back home to Nairobi for a year, working for a real estate investment firm before I joined Bain & Company to get some management consulting experience. I worked in the London office and then in the Johannesburg office, where I worked on a long-term project in Lusaka, Zambia, and spent a lot of time travelling between Zambia, South Africa & Kenya. In 2016, I got married (my husband is also a Stanford alum!) and not long after, I started working with an IT firm in Kenya, Computech Limited. My role is running a transformation programme for the company to make it better, faster, and more efficient.

How did you engage with Center for South Asia (CSA)?

During my sophomore year, I took a PWR 1 class which was all about India & Indian storytelling rhetoric, largely through the medium of Bollywood films with Dr. Sangeeta Mediratta. We became good friends and when she became involved with setting up the Center for South Asia, she offered me the opportunity to intern at the CSA as it was starting out. As an intern, I was involved in helping coordinate and execute events (including a great one we did with Shabana Azmi), staffing the CSA office and directing students who came by, and assisting with various programming including academic conferences.

What is one word that defines CSA for you?

Community

If you were to give a piece of advice to CSA students, what would that be?

Take advantage of and engage with all the resources available to you through CSA & the network of Global Studies, from the incredible faculty, to the great events, and of course, all the people who make up the CSA. You will have a great time and learn a lot too!