Divya Gupta ’25 instantly felt the “academic spark” when she stepped onto campus as a first-year student. But the club tennis team really made her feel at home.
When she joined the team as a first year, she knew “this is the right school for me,” says Gupta, who eventually became the women’s club team president. “Playing in college gave me community in a brand-new place. I’ve made lifelong friends.”
Exploration defined her four years at Northwestern. Originally from Leawood, Kan., Gupta didn’t know what she wanted to pursue. But the journalism class Chicago Divided: North Side vs. South Side, Cubs vs. White Sox, which explores the intersection of sports and society, suddenly cleared a path for her.
“That class really shifted my focus toward social service organizations,” she says. “I interviewed a woman who started an organization to help South Side kids get into tennis, and a lot of them got tennis scholarships. … Talking to people who are making a big change in their community really changed my perspective on journalism.”
Gupta double-majored in journalism and economics and minored in data science. She studied abroad in Barcelona, Spain; spent a week exploring international journalism with a class in Japan; and worked on the Northwestern University Two-Generation Research Initiative at the Institute for Policy Research.
Gupta also became a peer adviser, an experience she describes as “the most memorable thing I’ve done here. … The training we did … changed my whole perspective on how I approach conversations and people,” she says. This September Gupta is traveling to Spain as a Fulbright English teaching assistant, working with elementary and middle school students. “Northwestern has introduced me to a bunch of different career options,” says Gupta. “Teaching and journalism — I love both. I don’t know what I’m going to end up doing, but I know I want pieces of those careers to be part of my future.
“Northwestern will give you the opportunity to pursue things and change your mind a million times, and you’ll come out so much better than you came in.”
Learn more about Gupta and other outstanding graduates here.
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