Ms. Apurva Sarkar may call herself an ‘accidental teacher’, but it’s apparent that she has always had an instinct to teach as even during her school and college days she was tutoring her classmates. A gold medalist in both B. Sc. and M. Sc., she was always academically inclined and teaching as a profession came naturally to her.

Backed with values from the prestigious La Martiniere for Girls School in Kolkata, Ms. Apurva did her undergraduate in Bachelor of Science (B. Sc) with a Physics major from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and went on to pursue Master of Science in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. She further explored the field of research in two German cities—Rostock and Goettingen—and was the recipient of the Max Planck Fellowship while working at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization. She stepped into the word of teaching with a brief stint at Delhi Public School in Kolkata. Soon after she started working at The Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, where she taught Physics and Mathematics to students of ICSE/ISC. Since 2018, she has been teaching Physics to high school students at Dhirubhai Ambani International School and is extremely happy with the students and the classroom culture there.

For as long as she knew, Ms. Apurva never imagined studying anything but science. Science helped her quench her curiosity and make sense of the world unlike any other subject. Backed by ample encouragement from her parents and teachers, this further developed into a love for Physics, so much so that she chose to Major in Physics after school, choosing it over the more popular B. Tech course (which would ensure more employability). Her parents were her biggest inspiration as they always encouraged her to ask questions and not merely accept, thus developing the scientific temperament in her.

At different stages of her student life, Ms. Apurva had to deal with statements like “Science is not for girls” or “We (Men) need to think, YOU can just get married”. Later, while searching for jobs, she faced judgment and gender stereotypes, but she was so confident in her decisions that such comments never triggered any doubts. She also only chose to work at places where her talent, and not her gender, was the point of interest. Ms. Apurva believes in speaking her mind and doing her job efficiently, consciously abstaining from asking any favors using her gender as an excuse. According to her, when people see a woman doing a job as efficiently, or maybe even more efficiently than a man would, they back off.

In the last seven years, she has taught some brilliant minds who have gone on to study and work in STEM all over the world. She is continuously exploring the evolving field of science and loves to share it with her students, hoping to get more and more students involved in scientific pursuit and make significant contributions in the future.

When asked about what distinctive value women bring to science, Ms. Apurva says, “Women by nature are empathetic and have an eye for details. Complex scientific thinking and research needs a lot of organizational skills and patience, both of which are dominant traits in most women. The ability to build and nurture for years, along with keen observation skills, add value to a scientific pursuit. However, these qualities may be present equally in a man as well!”

Ms. Apurva believes women are taught to be likeable from a very young age and society is not conditioned to like opinionated women. So, to all the girls hoping to pursue sciences, she advises that it is okay to be a little less likeable if it lets you reach for your dreams instead. We need more female representation in STEM, and this starts with young girls in the classroom. Don’t ever doubt your passion for science due to comments from others. For us to be visible and noticed, we need to work towards our goals and be vocal!