Mariam Mansoor

I've always had a deep passion for education that really stemmed from my own personal experiences. I moved a lot when I was a kid, and seeing the disparities from different school neighborhoods really woke me to understand why is it that one school has a lot more resources than another, that ultimately determines what one can do in their future. I also traveled a lot, significantly, and while I am privileged to have access to education, that's not the case for a lot of people around the world. I first explored policy where I had the opportunity to intern with the Pan American Health Organization. I enjoyed it and thought I wanted to go into law because I felt like maybe I should go into law and be on a human rights, civil rights journey. But then I found myself getting back to the education sector because I felt like I wanted to make a direct impact, a focused impact, specifically in the education field. I'm currently pursuing education policy analysis at Harvard, which is preparing me to enter that international space or even work within the U.S. to make policies that achieve equity and equality. With the work I'm currently doing at Harvard College with the Student Engagement Office, we try to build training programs and workshops for undergrads to ensure that they have the skill set to become future and current leaders in their student organizations. That skill-building experience is what's crucial because sometimes these students are in classes but they don't really have these skill-building workshops to really hone down on their skills. With my education consultant position with LXD Research, we work with a bunch of different ed tech companies and see the impact they have at different universities. I've always been passionate about bringing equity and equality to make sure that students either have the extra support that they need and the extra training that they need to actually fulfill any goals that they may desire.