‘I am the first humanities student of my school’

 In a fun chat, we get to know how the school began with a new stream to support Agrima, the bias towards humanities she faced from the larger society and how she navigated her way through it all, into choosing her heart’s call. 

Tell us about the Apeejay School, Greater Noida years?

Those years were pretty nice. My Principal, Reena ma’am, played a great role in my time at the school. She was a great educator. Let me tell you about the most memorable incident with regard to her. So, since class 9 I was clear in my mind that I wanted to become a journalist, hence, I wanted to pursue humanities.

But unfortunately, at that time humanities was not in my school. However, Reena ma’am was super supportive to me, she went out of the way and successfully introduced humanities for me, a single interested student. It would be right to say that I am the first humanities student of my school.

And the subject teachers were equally supportive?

Absolutely! My batch was impacted by the pandemic as well, yet the school ensured that we do not lag behind in our academics in any manner. Teachers came from other Apeejay institutions in Faridabad and Delhi to teach us.

Arunima ma’am was my favourite teacher. She taught us history and it was my favourite subject. I would even say that she is the sole reason why I did not shift from humanities to another stream. I say this, since for about an initial period of two months, I was the sole humanities student.

Is there a general taboo against humanities in society?

Indeed there is! I scored 90% in class 10 exams. I was told by many in my life to choose science and not arts. Even today some of my juniors ask me about their career path and I observe that they too have this prejudice, sadly enough. They feel with humanities their career options will be restricted. It is in reality, quite the opposite.  

What words could possibly erase this taboo?

Humanities is a stream with more options than anything else. The world opens up to you with arts. Now with legal studies and other new disciplines and branches, there are so many more options for the modern world.

And lastly, a bit about your career?

There has been a change. (laughs) So, after doing a couple of internships, I got an in-depth understanding of the media world. Along with journalism, my interest also leans a bit towards pursuing PR (Public Relations).