Student Spotlight: Purvish Thakkar is Reaching New Heights
Purvish Thakkar is beaming as he talks about everything he’s learning, all the people he’s meeting, the events he’s participating in, and the opportunities he’s tapping into during his time in the MS in Project Management program.
His enthusiasm is palpable; his energy, contagious. So I ask him what his secret is. “There is no secret,” he laughs. “My motivation keeps soaring. I think I’m reaching new heights, actually!”
For the aspiring creator who co-founded an NGO while still in high school, moved abroad when he was just 18 years old, dropped out of engineering school to study architecture and design, and is passionate about generating and discussing ideas (and often has trouble sleeping because he has too many), Silicon Valley is the perfect playground. Project management, meanwhile, is the ideal area of specialization.
“Every day I feel like I’m learning something new,” he says. “And Silicon Valley has that entrepreneurial spark and amazing startup culture. I feel like here I’m moving closer to the vision I have for my career.”
Purvish presenting a project in front of prospective students at the campus Open House
A bigger vision
Purvish envisions himself as a community builder and creative entrepreneur — someone who brings talented people from different industries together, creates an environment where they can do their best work, and guides them toward a common goal.
While working as an architect and designer, he was already exploring aspects of those roles. “I wasn’t just designing buildings, but also working with cross-functional teams — engineers, contractors, and professionals in marketing and sales.”
He was also facilitating connections. “Architecture is about creating spaces and structures where people can come together,” he explains. “When people come together, interactions happen. Connections develop. Emily Levine has this interesting TED talk where she references the idea that reality comes into being through interaction. Everything is an interaction: you interact with people, your devices, the planet. It’s in those moments that you perceive the world as real.”
Pursuing a Master’s degree in project management was the path he found to enabling interactions through means other than the creation of physical spaces. “I want to lean into designing communities and creating and curating experiences,” he says. “I’m not so much drifting from architecture as I am trying to encompass more.”
Attending the 2023 Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center Conference
Skills for collaboration
To that end, Purvish is studying the foundational skills of project management — including Agile principles and management, time management, networking, and people management — as well as learning from inspiring local initiatives and events, including conferences, art collectives, cultural showcases, and community building workshops.
Thanks to Northeastern’s experiential learning approach, he’s putting everything he’s learning inside and outside of the classroom into practice. “I’m not just reading about scheduling or networking or working with different people in different roles, I’m doing those things in my assignments and projects.”
That’s especially true for his on-campus roles as Student Ambassador and Peer Mentor, which he sees as opportunities to improve his ability to collaborate with and bring out the best in people of all backgrounds. “I want to be my most authentic self and create an environment where others can do the same,“ he says. “We are all humans at the end of the day, made of the same material, and should therefore respect and nurture one another,” he says.
Hiking in Santa Clara county at a student ambassador-organized event
Come January, Purvish will join MadeINcubator, a nonprofit that supports the development of a creative community in Boston through real-life education, resources, and mentorship. He’ll be involved in the production of Living Art Boston (LAB) Week, which will bring together business leaders, fashion brands, investors, tech professionals, and special guests for keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops, shows, and exhibitions — a co-op opportunity that perfectly aligns with the vision he has for his career.
It’s no wonder he’s excited.