Merlia Shaukath Tanseer

I consider the one year spent at Oxford, pursuing the MSc extremely valuable and it has gone a long way in helping me realise my personal and professional aspirations. My classmates were pretty incredible and so were the lecturers and the course gave me the chance to develop some fresh and unconventional perspectives about the socio political complexities in India. The skills and knowledge that I picked up as a student in Oxford, and particularly as an area studies student, have stood me in good stead as I got involved in the social sector here in India. My dissertation topic was 'Corporate Social Responsibility in the Indian context'. It's fascinating to realise that I've actually been able to implement the findings and have been able to contribute to the development and fund raising activities in my current role.

I currently work with Teach For India (a member of the Teach For All network, much like Teach First in the UK) and earlier in the year, led efforts towards the launch of a  new site (Chennai is the 5th city to be launched in 4 years). I currently manage operations and government relations for Chennai. My work involves stakeholder management, government liaison and strategy. And...oh! I also managed to find time to get married two months after returning to India from Oxford!