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OMEMA AKHTAR
Aspiration Statement
I aspire to become an urban planning and development specialist. I want to plan the world’s cities through a deep understanding of the issues and contexts at play in international development. By implementing my data analysis/urban planning and design skills in data-driven approaches to tackle today’s most pressing urban challenges.
Core Skills
- Qualitative or Quantitative Data Research Skills
- Data Analysis
- Communication and Collaboration: being able to clearly articulate plans in form of presentations or report
- Project Management
- Stakeholder Management: involving and influencing the range of stakeholders
- Negotiation, Facilitation, Mediation
Academic Awards / Achievements
- President’s Honor List - Year 2018, 2019, & 2020
- High Academic Achievement Award in 2017 and High Academic Leap Scholar
- Dean’s List (x7) Fall and Spring 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
Experience
Leadership / Meta-curricular
- Recipient of fully funded LOCALINTER National 2019 Internship by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Turkey (TBB)
- University of California, Berkeley, USA attended UC Berkeley Summer Session’18.
- University of Sussex, UK attended University of Sussex International Summer School’19.
- Selected for Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations HPAIR-2018 Asian & 2019 Harvard Conference, USA
- Attended HPAIR Harvard International 2019 Conference at Harvard University, USA. Track: Arts, Media and Culture
Internship / Volunteer Work
- Daraz - Growth Hacker
- 10Pearls - Business Analyst
- US Mobile - Operations Associate
- Habib Interdisciplinary Development Research and Action Center (IDRAC) - Research Assistant
- Alamgir Welfare Trust’ International Internship - Intern
- The Citizens Archive - Intern
Publications / Creative Projects
- Presenter at LUMS Saida Waheed Gender Initiative Conference 2018.
- Best Paper Award at Annual International Conference on Social Science 2019. Presenting paper: “Becoming Visible: Iranian Women after the Islamic Revolution”.
Final Year Project
Project Title
Re-imagining Urban Mobility & Poverty: A Case-study on Low Income Households from Karachi, Pakistan
Description
Relatively little is known about the relationship between the mobility practices of low-income households and their experiences of poverty. The lack of an affordable and accessible public transport system can affect this relationship and among other things, it can socially exclude the poor from accessing various facets of the city. Therefore, my thesis aims to examine inter-relationships between mobility, poverty and social exclusion among the low-income households of Karachi, who experience the transport disadvantage. Adopting a case study and a mixed-method approach, the thesis assesses mobility practices of low-income families and the challenges they face in accessing public transport services, coupled with evaluating its impact on their livelihoods with possible implications of increased poverty through household surveys and qualitative narratives.
Project Pictures
