Raghav, a native of Delhi, India, wanted to attend a small liberal arts college after spending his secondary school years at a small, international baccalaureate boarding school. His multiple passions and ability to communicate well with people across disciplines, from the sciences to the humanities, have helped him succeed at Mastercard, where he’s able to discuss strategy and market needs as well as technology.
“I knew I was the kind of person who was always going to major in something in the sciences but also had a lot of passion for theatre and religious studies and philosophy and whatever else. I always knew I wanted to do a variety of things.
“There are all sorts of examples that you can find of going across schools of knowledge. What can I learn from one and apply to the other? That’s where a lot of the magic these days is happening. The number of times I applied learning from my electronics class to designing lights on stage ... You can memorize rules if you’re just going to do theatre, or you can go and learn the physics and come back and go, ‘Huh. I understand why this circuitry is designed this way.’
“In business terminology, we call this thinking laterally and working cross-functionally. That’s basically, in my opinion, having a liberal arts education.”
“Senior year I was the treasurer [of the Student Government Association]. The ability to manage a half-a-million-dollar budget equity with no adult supervision — that’s the kind of responsibility that self-gov gives you. That’s the other hand to clap with. The self-gov is one hand, and the responsibility that comes with it is the other hand. We funded everything that students did and loved on campus — their parties, their concerts, their films.”
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