An individual of EPIIC proportions

After meeting sophomore Ajaita Shah and learning the meaning of her name, it seems as if no other pseudonym would have been appropriate.

"[Ajaita] means 'one that cannot be defeated' in Hindi," Shah said.

In any setting, 19-year-old Shah demands your attention. With her confident demeanor and notoriously loud voice, she knows how to take charge, and can quickly draw your interest into a conversation by making you laugh or teaching you something you never knew before.

"The ongoing joke [among friends and family] is that I'm going to run for President some day," Shah said.

Shah was born in Queens, New York but moved upstate to Scarsdale when she was 12. The daughter of immigrants from India, her father a jeweler and her mother a homemaker, Shah's road to Tufts was somewhat different than that of the average student.

"Originally I started off high school thinking I would pursue law or pre-med because that's what the typical Indian parent wants for their child," Shah said. "But I joined the debate team, and the second I started, I really enjoyed it. It was policy debating, and that's how I got interested in foreign policy."

As the only female on an all-male debate team, Shah had to learn how to hold her own. "I started traveling a lot, and that's when I knew my parents were going to become a problem," Shah said. "They didn't like the idea of an Indian girl, especially their daughter, traveling with a bunch of guys. And the fact that I became very independent, very quickly, wasn't something they were willing to accept right away."

It wasn't until her junior year of high school that Shah decided she wanted to apply to out of state colleges. "I wanted to go away to college, away from New York, and I fought a lot with my parents [because they didn't want me to go]," she said.

Shah eventually won the battle and was accepted to Tufts. Soon after the beginning of her freshman year, she decided to pursue the International Relations major. But it wasn't until her sophomore year that she got involved with what would prove to be her true doorway into the world of government and politics.

"I decided to join EPIIC," Shah said.

Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship, or EPIIC, is a program through the Tufts Institute for Global Leadership, which is designed to prepare students to become active in global and national issues.

"Basically, the whole goal of EPIIC is to educate students and make them aware of what it means to be a citizen of the world," Shah said. "You become so involved and dedicated to [the program] that you're always wanting to learn more, and do more."

Shah's eyes light up when she talks about her interests. "This year's topic is 'The Dilemmas in Nation-Building: America's Role in the World,' and you learn so much about how America's actions influence the rest of the world," she said. "It's incredible. You work so hard, you read so much, and interact with so many different people. I've learned so much just in a semester. And it makes you want to educate the rest of your school, and the rest of your community."

For Shah, one of the most important aspects of EPIIC is that it has allowed her to pursue her own research ambitions.

"The whole goal of EPIIC is to take this knowledge and do something with it, and decide if you want to pursue something later on," Shah said. "I decided I was very interested in security policy and intervention. It all started in light of the Iraq war, and how much our allies really rejected wanting to support the United States."

Rather than traveling to the beaches of Cancun for Spring Break like many of her contemporaries, Shah plans to travel to Paris, Berlin and Brussels. Along with two other EPIIC students, senior John Francis and junior Tsega Menelik, Shah will visit different security institutions of the European Union (EU) and interview different researchers, military personnel, politicians, ambassadors, and officials on the future role of the military in the European Union.

"There's a growing divide between Europe and the US on militaristic issues -- the two have very different views and ideologies," Shah said. "Our allies have become our adversaries, and it's very interesting to see this change, and the main reason is because the US is so militaristic and unilateral. And it turns out that the EU wants to be less dependent on America, and build its own military."

For Shah, one of the most exciting parts of her research and EPIIC experiences is the opportunity to meet amazing and important people: "It's crazy because these people are celebrities within their own professional world and you wouldn't normally get to meet with them or interact with them as a college student," Shah said.

Shah's ambitions reach even further than interviewing some of Europe's top officials at age 19: with her EPIIC colleagues, she hopes to help create new literature on Europe's modern foreign policy methods and plans.

"Our question is how this is going to change the world order and what is going to happen in the future," Shah explained.

According to Shah, the only thing that could hold her back is that there isn't much funding available for sophomores to do research. "Most of it is for juniors and seniors," she said. But with her partners, and the help of EPIIC, Shah has been applying for scholarships and grants in order to get funding.

Despite the common misconception on campus that "EPIIC kids don't do anything but EPIIC," Shah occupies her free time -- which is very little -- with other activities. Currently, she is choreographing, dancing, and singing in the upcoming TASA culture show.

So after all of her hard work, what's Shah's plan for the future? "I would like to become a diplomat or a representative to Europe," Shah said. "Maybe I'll even take over and represent

the US in NATO. Who knows? Maybe I will run for President."