Geeking Out With...Atiqua Prithu
March 2, 2026
Abigail Arnold | Office of Graduate Affairs
Geeking Out With…is a feature in which we talk to graduate students about their passions. You can check out past installments here.
Atiqua Prithu is a first-year master’s student in the accelerated International Economics and Finance program. She is focusing on topics related to her career goals in economic or strategy consulting, including macroeconomics and trade. She joined Geeking Out With… to talk about the club she co-founded at Brandeis, the Women in Economics and Finance Club.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
How did you decide to start the Women in Economics and Finance Club and go about getting it off the ground?
I co-founded the club with my friend and classmate Onyx Allen. We came up with the idea because we wanted to be part of a club in our field and couldn’t find one that fit our interests. Based on our experiences, we decided to create a space for women and femme-identifying people in the field. In one of our courses, Launching Your Global Career, we had a panel come to talk about their careers: there were five panelists, and only one was a woman. We wanted to see more women in these positions, especially because when you think of the hard finance world, it’s already very intimidating. In addition, for me, because of my cultural background as a South Asian woman, I’ve often felt intimidated by these spaces, like they weren’t curated for me and I had to fight tooth and nail for a position without a support system. When we came up with the idea, we started the groundwork, creating our constitution and marketing our events. The club is open to both graduate and undergraduate students, and twenty-eight people signed up in the first month, which was very exciting!
This semester, we started fully kicking off and held our first general meeting in January. Fifteen people came; we were worried people would forget about the club and not show up, so that was a big relief. We talked about why we wanted to create the club: to have a sense of community among women and have a network to vent, talk, and discuss what we are going through. We opened up the floor to a general discussion about working in economics and finance spaces. A lot of people talked about similar experiences with financial internships and jobs where they had mostly male colleagues. One person said she had a male manager and wanted to ask him for mentorship but lacked a feeling of community with him, since they didn’t share as many common experiences. It was really powerful to see that a lot of people felt the same way and needed community; our members both want to fulfill their own aspirations and to support each other. Now we have started recruiting our board members, and we’ve had great applications.
What else are you planning to do in your meetings going forward?
Today [February 10] will be our second general meeting. We plan to start off by talking about world news and events related to macronomics and global finance. We want people to practice talking informally about these topics, so that if, for example, a co-worker brings them up while getting coffee, people have the skills to participate in conversation. After that, we will try to have a training or workshop session for each meeting. For this one, we plan to talk about the pains of networking and workshop small skills that people can use to get over their fear of networking. For example, you can lead off a less formal conversation by talking about your “sticky” – something that stands out about you. We are really excited about the club and are hoping to have more networking events with alums.
Why did you bring graduate and undergraduate students together in the same club?
I love that the club brings both together because undergraduates get to come in, meet graduate students, and get advice if they are interested in pursuing graduate school. It opens pathways for mentorship, especially since graduate students come in at all stages of life and some may have already had experiences in a field others want to go into. It also sets up a space for low-stress networking with peers. We have more graduate students than undergraduate students at the moment but still have a pretty good number of each. One of our board representatives is in the five-year MBA program and still in her undergraduate years.
You mentioned not feeling like high-finance spaces are always curated for you. How did you become interested in this world, and what have your past experiences been like?
I did my undergraduate degree at a women’s college, so while I knew the finance world was male-dominated, I was lucky to be surrounded by a very supportive community of professors and peers. I never felt I had to second guess or doubt myself asking questions in class. We were encouraged to take on job and internship opportunities in the field. One of my professors encouraged me to join an investment club, and we got to attend an event in New York and see other clubs present their findings. I was an intern in corporate strategy as an undergraduate as well, and I got to incorporate macroeconomics and finance into my work and create presentations for executives; that was really interesting to work on and got me more curious to see what was out there in those fields. Right now, I am trying to explore different opportunities and see where I fit the best, since I’m still not one hundred percent committed to a specific career path.
What are your goals for the club going forward?
Right now, our main goal is to be very active and involved and to partner with other clubs for their events and get the word out about the club. Mostly, we want to host events aligned with our members’ interests. We’d like to host a speed networking event with women in different fields and have guest speakers talk about their careers and how they dealt with barriers they faced. We especially want to be solid with networking, because it can be a challenge for women to advocate for themselves. We want events to empower our members and expose them to different careers and how to pursue them. Our bigger eventual goals could be to host competitions and conferences and perhaps partner with organizations from other schools.
What people have supported you in getting the club started?
Onyx, my co-leader, and I are in the same program. We met at orientation and have been great friends ever since. Our biggest support has been our club advisor Jennifer Voldins, who is our program’s career coach; she’s been helpful getting us off the ground. The Office of Academic Affairs and Student Experience for graduate students in the School of Business and Economics has helped us with the logistics of setting up; Kapik Yeung in that office has helped us a lot. The School of Business and Economics’ career office has also helped spread our news. There are a lot of women in these offices who are excited about the club, and our peers have been really nice and congratulated us on our work.
When you’re not studying or running your club, what else do you like to do?
I like to hang out with my friends, have tea and snacks, and talk. We like going to the gym to exercise together as well. I like running but haven’t been able to do a lot outdoors in this beautiful weather! I also like to read historical fiction.
What advice do you have for other students exploring their passions?
Get exposure and talk to people. You never know what advice or insight they might have that might be life-changing. You can start small: I advocate for peer-to-peer networking because it’s low stakes. My first coffee chat here was with a teaching assistant for a class I was in, and, because I already knew him, I wasn’t stressed. People come from such different backgrounds in graduate school that learning about others’ lived experiences is great – any time I’ve talked to someone here, I’ve been amazed to learn about what they’ve done in the past! Because Brandeis is so international, you also get to learn about different cultures and places. Don’t be shy and just go in.