Alumni Spotlight: Prachi Murarka ’06

Prachi Murarka (class of 2006) came to IASMH from Michigan City, Indiana. In her two years at the Academy, Prachi really blossomed and grew as a human being. She served the Academy community in several roles: as Treasurer and Moderator of Student Parliament, as Master of Ceremony at graduation, as co-founder of the Vegetarian Club, as an active member of Big Brothers Big Sisters, and as an athlete for the varsity tennis and junior varsity soccer teams. Indiana Academy helped nurture her passion for change and aspiration to create a sustainable difference in the world. Her time at the Academy was the jumping off point for this vision, as it led her to value community, service, dedication, and love as foundational values for her life. She fondly remembers late night conversations, and the intellectual and spiritual rigor that guided her friendships.

Prachi went on to graduate Cum Laude in Social Policy and International Studies from Northwestern University. During college, she wrote two theatrical pieces—one performed by Rasaka Theatre Company, and the other one devised and performed by NU’s Spectrum Theatre Company. Since then, Prachi has started a yoga program for women at a shelter in Chicago, openly taught yoga during Occupy protests, and developed an Arts Yoga Movement curriculum taught in Indian schools. In addition to these endeavors, she worked at various organizations such as Ashoka in Washington, DC; Atlas Corps and USAID in Colombia; and the Women and Girls Collective Action Network in Chicago. Prachi has been a long term volunteer for the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, India, and was working at Amrita University developing ideal models for rural education. She currently serves on the Advisory Board for Engender South Africa.

Prachi is a certified Access Consciousness Bars facilitator and does trainings on health, nutrition, energy work, and meditation in India and the United States. After researching the best education programs to nurture children and build self-sustaining, resilient communities, she is now doing an MA in Waldorf Education at Rudolf Steiner College. Prachi believes that IASMH gave her the tools and community to value transformative education and become an inquisitive life-long learner. It is with deep gratitude and appreciation that she remembers all the staff and her friends from IASMH. To find out more about Prachi’s journey, you can see her stories at evenmonkscarrycellphones.wordpress.com.