Projesh Banerjea

Banerjea__projesh

“After working in the financial services sector this year, I understand how important it is to study history and analyze why certain decisions were made in the past and whether they should or should not be altered. I have learned that history does, indeed, repeat itself and that the four most expensive words in the world are perhaps ‘this time it's different’.”

  • Program: 2009 Graduate Scholarship Recipient
  • Resides: London, London
  • Hometown: Kolkata, West Bengal, India
  • Age: 23

Biography

PROFILE: A few weeks after Projesh Banerjea graduated from college in 2008 he began work on Wall Street with J.P. Morgan Chase as a financial analyst. Little did he know when he began the position that the American economy would come to the breaking point during his short tenure in New York. As Projesh departs for the United Kingdom and graduate study at the London School of Economics, he’s hoping the financial system has stabilized. Projesh was born in India, and at an early age moved with his family to Liberia where his father had been transferred. He was there just a short time when Civil War broke out. His family’s home was looted and razed and he just barely escaped back to India where the family eventually resettled in Calcutta. An experience that had a powerful impact on Projesh was attending school for ten years across the street from Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity. He organized food drives for the mission through his high school and learned then that there was truly something noble about helping a fellow human being “and that I wanted service always to be a part of my life.”  While a high school student in Calcutta he immersed himself in various extracurricular activities, taking up music, debate, theater, and sports, eventually going on to win the Shaw Education Foundation award for the Best All-Round Student in the city.  Projesh came to America to study at DePauw University in Indiana where he quickly distinguished himself both as a brilliant student and a kind-hearted friend to all who knew him. One of his teachers called him a “visionary student of economics.” 

INSPIRATION: One of Projesh’s economics professors at DePauw, Raymonda Burgman, “had a way of bridging the gap between academia and the real world and made me see economics not just as a subject to be studied but as a way of life.”

ASPIRATION: Once Projesh completes his graduate studies in London, he hopes to return to India to work for the Reserve Bank of India or the Ministry of Finance. While he hopes to eventually pursue a Ph.D. in Developmental Economics, his ultimate goal is to become India’s Finance Minister and help draft economic policies that focus on education, domestic industry, as well as rural and urban infrastructure development.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: The young economist tries to “give back” to the community whenever and wherever he has the opportunity. In New York City, he tutored survivors of domestic violence in English, helped paint a Manhattan shelter, and co-translated English documents into Bengali for new immigrants.

ACCOLADES: Projesh won The Wall Street Journal Student Achievement Award in 2008, and in the same year the Frank T. Carlton Award for Economics. He was also selected to Phi Beta Kappa.
 
INTERESTING FACT: Projesh once took a week off from work to volunteer as an apprentice at a French pastry shop.

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