A Day in the Life: Rahul Sharma ’25
We followed MAM student Rahul Sharma ’25 as he went to class, worked on his startup, and rehearsed for a student-run play. Photos by Tony Rinaldo.
9:30 a.m.
I usually wake up an hour before class, make Indian tea, and get ready for the day. That day, I took an Uber to Intermediate Acting, a course I’m taking through Yale College. In my MBA program, I took a lot of classes on finance and strategy, so I decided to use my time in the MAM program to work on my “soft” skills. Yale SOM is a great place to do that because you can take courses across the entire university. I had audited an acting course in the fall and loved it. This spring, I enrolled in Intermediate Acting course for credit. It has really enhanced my public speaking and stage presence.
10:30 a.m.
In class, we warmed up by stretching, doing breathing exercises, and practicing voice projection. Then it was my turn to perform a scene with my partner in front of the entire class. At the beginning of the semester, I was intimidated, because English is not my first language and many of my classmates had significant acting experience. But once I learned the techniques and started applying them, I was able to focus more on conveying emotions. The scene went well, and everyone really liked it.
12:20 p.m.
After acting class, I headed back to Evans Hall. On the way, I stopped at Olmo to buy a bagel and coffee—two things I’ve really started liking since I came to the U.S. from India. I arrived early to my class Supply Chain Management and chatted with my friend and startup partner Pranjal Agrawal ’26, who is in the MBA program. We’re trying to connect marginalized artisans in India with consumers in the U.S. This semester, we took a course called Startup Founder Practicum, which gave us the accountability and mentorship we needed to refine our idea and work on the startup in real time.
My background is in supply chain management, so I initially thought I might not learn that much from Supply Chain Management. But Professor Sang Kim introduced me to new concepts and frameworks and provided incredibly in-depth knowledge of the supply-chain function. I’ve gotten so much out of it.
2:30 p.m.
After class, Pranjal and I had a startup meeting. There’s a system at Evans Hall where you can reserve small rooms for private meetings or studying. We spent the meeting discussing some changes in our business model, which have required us to pivot our strategy and revise the process for shipping items from India to the U.S. We also reached out to some organizations we connected with at a recent industry event in New York City.
4:00 p.m.
I met with my Supply Chain Management learning group to plan a case study we were writing together. The assignment asked us to choose an organization facing a supply chain challenge in and come up with innovative models to solve it. We ended up choosing an agribusiness company I previously worked for in Gabon. The study group was very diverse and included students from different degree programs across SOM and Yale. When people come from different backgrounds, they bring different ways of thinking. My teammate Reeti Sethi, from the School of the Environment, had great ideas about making the supply chain more sustainable.
5:30 p.m.
In the evening, I headed to rehearsal at the Yale Cabaret, a theatre company run by students at the School of Drama. I was acting in a play called Beneath Soil, which was set to go up as the last show of the Cabaret’s 57th season. It’s a Mexican play, translated into English by the Abraham Rebollo, a student of Yale School of Drama and our director. In addition to the challenges of learning my part, I also had to sing a lot during the play. But Abraham gave me amazing feedback. I really evolved as an actor through the experience, and when my SOM friends came to see the play, they appreciated my performance.
7:00 p.m.
I wrapped up the day with a walk in East Rock Park with a friend. It’s a beautiful park with a river, several bridges, and an amazing view of the sunset. After that, we cooked some Indian food and had dinner together. I finished some schoolwork and read a few pages of a book on acting before going to bed.
