Posts in Featured Alumni
Alumni Spotlight: Ruchika Tulshyan, LT'16

The year I moved to America was characterized by sixteen mass shootings. After the horrific murders of six-year-olds in Newtown later that year, I told my husband that I didn’t want to live here. Over the five years since, we’ve discussed the possibility of moving outside of the United States at least 100 times. It’s usually after another episode of senseless violence and much more frequently since the recent election of the American president.

Every time we come close to moving, something holds us back in America – mostly our jobs, but often it’s a reluctance to give up what we do love about living here: the welcome expression of speech, press and diverse ideas...and of course, Seattle’s coffee. But as immigrants, there’s no denying that America has become less hospitable for us in the last year.

I was ecstatic when I learned of my selection for the 2017 Young American Leaders Program. An all-expenses trip to Harvard Business School plus the opportunity to learn from one of my academic idols, Rosabeth Moss Kantor? Yes, please! At the same time, I had doubts on whether I would be the right person to dedicate towards Seattle’s future prosperity. I got on the flight to Boston both curious and skeptical.

Read More