A Shared Identity

Almost the moment she arrived on campus from Hyderabad, Shreeya Lakkapragada ’26 felt a connection between India and Wellesley. There were other students from India, of course. But there were also “students of Indian origin, or ethnically Indian, who grew up in the U.S. or other parts of the world,” she says. And there were “students who are not necessarily ethnically Indian, but who grew up in India.”

It was, she says, “eye-opening in terms of how identity can be shared.” At cultural events on campus, she noticed how people gathered who shared an affinity for India. “Students show up because they have some sort of affiliation with Indian culture or South Asian culture,” she says. “Everyone, internally, has that bond.”

During her sophomore year, Lakkapragada was walking through Diana Chapman Walsh Alumnae Hall and was struck by the portraits of Alumnae Achievement Award recipients. “I was looking at them and noticed, oh, wow, someone’s a psychologist, and I want to be a psychologist,” she recalls. Then something else caught her attention: “Oh my God, there are three people who are Indian!”

Curious, she began investigating. “I had to know who they were and their life stories,” she says. “It just spiraled. I went from one rabbit hole to another.” She approached Neelima Shukla-Bhatt, professor of religious studies, to ask whether the India-Wellesley axis might be worth exploring further. That conversation quickly turned into an independent study. Then Lakkapragada thought, “What if I declare a South Asia studies major? What if I make this into a thesis?”

This winter, she presented her first thesis chapter, “Missionary Zeal, Educational Expansion: Early Wellesley Women in India,” to an enthusiastic audience in Clapp Library. In her thesis, she explores the Wellesley–India relationship and its role in global intercultural exchange through women’s education. Lakkapragada traces connections shaped by religion, diplomacy, business leadership, and academia. The project crosses many fields at once, she says: “It’s not only history; it’s not only women’s education. It’s all of it.”

Lakkapragada found that two of the graduates in Wellesley’s first class listed their home as India. Daughters of American missionary families, they had been sent back to the U.S. to study. Her research led her to archives at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute, where she sifted through missionary collections and historical correspondence. She looked at letters, diaries, and photographs. “It was so awesome,” she says. “Mind-blowing.” The materials helped shape her thesis and opened new questions about the role women’s education played in building early ties between Wellesley and the subcontinent.

Lakkapragada was born in the U.S., but she and her mother moved back to India when she was 8. Her mother struggled with mental health challenges, and Lakkapragada was largely raised by her maternal family. “It was very fortunate,” she says. “I was raised very lovingly.”

After graduation, “my larger, long-term life goal is to build a mental health organization in India,” she says. The exact path to that remains uncertain. “I have no clue,” she says, laughing, but she is clear about one thing. “I do want to go back to India,” she says, “and live a life.”