Everyone wants the secret to Ketaki Sarin’s success.
“I never saw Ketaki as a student but as a colleague. She takes initiative, fixes problems, and innovates,” explained Professor Nazanin Khazra, Faculty Advisor of the Economics Learning Centre where first- and second-year students can go for extra help. “She works as a TA and as the head learning assistant at our ESC while acing all her courses. I hope she can share her secret with everyone!”
A member of Trinity College, Sarin has just completed a specialization in Economics and Mathematics. She has attracted both attention and awards during her four years as a student with the Department of Economics where she became one of its first undergraduate TAs. She won both the Alexander Mackenzie and the Ramsay Scholarships in Economics for 2023-24.
The year before, she added the Nanda Choudhry Prize (Year II) and the Stefan Stykolt Scholarship in Economic Theory to her list of accomplishments.
Committed to the study of Economics from admission, Sarin found her motivation changing as she matured. The new motivation hints at part of her secret.
“I knew I wanted to make a lot of money,” said Sarin, “then, in second year, I discovered that I really love teaching. It’s probably the most rewarding experience I have had here. I can feel my own understanding of the subject deepening just through talking with others.”
Learning through teaching led Sarin to the Economics Study Centre where she served as the Lead Learning Assistant for the 2023-24 school year. Like most members of the class of 2024, the international student from India spent the entirety of her first year at home taking courses remotely. After arriving in Toronto in 2021 she immediately became involved with the Economics community here at UofT, taking a summer research assistantship position with Professor Gustavo Bobonis. In addition to learning how to teach through the ESC and her TA position. She also fell in love with the Canadian outdoors and took part in hikes organized by the Trinity College Outdoors Society.
“I wish I could just stay here forever,” she said over a conversation in the lounge of Max Gluskin House, the Department of Economics HQ, “I want to be a student and keep learning for as long as I can. I’m thrilled to be here and surrounded by so many people who have been so influential in Economics and on me personally.”
While a return to Canada might happen at some point in the future, staying in one place is not Sarin’s current style and that too, holds another segment of her secret. While it is not often said that behind every great economist is a great dog, there is some anecdotal evidence to support the assertion. All the money Sarin has earned as a TA and LA has gone toward trips home to visit her beloved dog Woofs.
“Dogs really don’t live as long as they should,” she lamented. “I want to spend all the time I can with him.”
Now that she has completed her BSc, Sarin’s parents will still be Woofs’ main caretakers. Sarin is off to the London School of Economics to do her MSc. in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics. It’s a move she describes as the perfect bridge from the University of Toronto to a PhD program. A bridge that is supported by the most important part of her secret.
“One hundred percent of the reason I want to do a PhD is because I love Economics, it’s my passion,” Sarin said, “but so is teaching Economics.”
Return to the Department of Economics website.
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