Eashan Kumar has kept himself busy while at IU.
The graduating senior, who will have a dual degree in neuroscience and international studies along with minors in chemistry, psychology and Spanish, was selected as the 2018 student speaker for spring commencement.
Kumar grew up in Munster, Indiana, and said he came to IU because of how affordable the school was and the quality of the programs it offered.
Prior to Saturday's spring commencement at Memorial Stadium, Kumar spoke with the Indiana Daily Student about his time at IU and what he took away most from his college experience.
What was your life story prior to coming to IU?
I have an older sister, younger brother. I'm the oldest of a bunch of cousins. Our family story is that my grandma came here in like 1970 to work as a nurse while she left my grandpa, mom and uncle back in India. So she like came here to work to pay money for their airplane ticket. My mom came here, she was raised here, she moved here when she was like two with them. My dad is from India, they met in India. I'm from in northwest Indiana, that's where my family's always been, my grandma moved there, my mom was raised there. Came to IU because of how affordable it was, good program, friends were here.
My dad owned a liquor store, and he sold it, he works as a construction worker for a union with road testing and my mom was a nuclear medicine tech, but she quit that and became a realtor.
What was the thought behind your diverse group of majors and minors?
I guess I'm interested in a lot of different things. I came into college as a philosophy major, actually, and then I realized that's not what I wanted to study. I knew I wanted to do something with science, my friends told me like neuroscience was one of the best majors for pre-med. I've always been someone who's interested in a lot of things whether it's been language or philosophy or math or history, so international studies, I added that after I studied abroad. I felt that was the most interdisciplinary major in terms of, you get a language concentration, a regional concentration, you get a thematic concentration and you take classes from like a wide variety of different disciplines.
I was in Barcelona, did the advanced liberal arts program. Took two classes at the University of Barcelona, two classes with the program and one internship. It was cool. I hope to use Spanish in my future. I can understand Hindi and I also audited Arabic for a semester here, so yeah hopefully after college I'll have more time to myself to learn more languages because I've always liked learning languages.
What are your immediate and long-term plans after college?
I've never been someone with a plan. I've taken it day by day, but as of now I'm doing Teach for America, so it's a two-year commitment in Indianapolis. I've been teaching at IU since sophomore year and tutoring since freshman year. Just throughout my experiences here I've realized education is really at the crux of every like opportunity and success. My grandma came here for education, I would be nowhere without my high school education and my preliminary education back in Munster. I had a good school system. I think it's a good way to kind of give back to the community and mold future citizens, also teaching is like the best way to learn as well. College is kind of full of distractions, I think teaching will get my head on straight and be more Type A because I've been too Type B.
What advice would you give to the next freshman class?
There's a lot man. Don't overcommit yourself and don't take yourself too seriously. Enjoy college. Be really open minded. It's okay if you mess up the first couple times, just learn from it. IU has so many majors, clubs, do something you're passionate about because you can't fake passion. Be honest with yourself in terms of why you're doing what you're doing. Don't try to please other people. You'll find your community here if you're just honest with yourself.
What advice would you give to the graduating senior class?
Cherish the memories of your friends here. Understand that everything you put into the world has a consequence, I guess the idea of karma. Make sure you're doing good for the sake of doing good. IU has given people a wide variety of experiences and diversity and stuff so, I hope people learn from that and become a global citizen and kind of understand your place in the world and kind of your potential to make positive social impact, no matter what field you go into.
What is your biggest takeaway from your time at IU?
I've learned to like find balance, like saying no more, but while also being really open-minded, because I'm really experience-driven. So I guess just trying to balance in terms of time management, social life, work-life balance, studying. I guess that was my biggest lesson, how to manage my time, even though I'm still perfecting that.
