MY BEYOND THESE TOWERS STORY

Dr. Henna (Anu) Karna ‘98 moved to the United States from India at a very early age. Although she wasn’t considered an international student when she arrived on campus, she described the culture shock she experienced as the most difficult and paralyzing part of her WPI experience. However, as do so many students at WPI, Karna found her circle of people on campus, and she is quick to offer them praise. “A grounding force for me at WPI was the International Students Organization (ISO) that I joined in an effort to find belonging. ISO was a small group of international students who were also finding their way, assessing their identity, and learning about themselves, and that made it easier for me to relate to them.”

Karna’s birth country of India continues to be a source of inspiration and joy for her as does her university experience at WPI. “Academically, working in WPI’s project-based learning model over a period of months required multiple perspectives and sharpened problem-solving methodologies; this pedagogy style was quite key for me. Additionally, the university’s distinct Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) and Major Qualifying Project (MQP) proved to be especially valuable learning tools. And lastly, the required Humanities & Art project for all students which allows them to develop some literacy in the humanities is something I found to be superbly powerful for the real world. I am an artist wanna-be so it was perfect in that sense!”

“The approach I take on how I measure success, how I servant lead, how I build and contribute to the culture of wherever I am is tremendously influenced by the learnings I have had in my life thus far. And much of those learnings started at WPI.”

Dr. Henna (Anu) Karna ’98

WPI is well known for the rigorous academic experience it provides students, but what may be less known according to Karna are the more systemic elements of a WPI education. “The four-term school year creates a crazy rushed feeling, but at the same time, I look back at that layout of the year to be a benefit. It forced me to fail fast. If I couldn’t grasp something, within the next two months I would be able to get a different lens from a different professor, and I might just connect the dots. That happened to me so often. I naturally look for patterns so getting the variety of courses under my learning really was game changing for the amount of value I could gain during my time at WPI. The school sets students up well for launching into a career.”

After WPI, the mathematical sciences major went on to earn her Masters & Doctorate from University of Massachusetts, and MBA from MIT. Recently, Karna has been with Google as GM, Managing Director, Global Industry Solutions, Risk & Insurance. Her role consists of designing and implementing data, AI, and analytics solutions, strategic partnerships, and go-to-market strategies for the Insurance and Risk Management industry.  Additionally, she currently serves on the Board of Essent Group (NYSE: ESNT), Hamilton Group (NYSC: HIG), AAA NE, and the AtSign Company.

Karna offers gratitude to WPI for the role it played in her career, saying, “I am super grateful for what I was able to learn in my mathematics courses at WPI – they were foundational to how I problem solve and most importantly, they taught me that there are many, many ways to solve the same problem – and each way has its pros and cons. It was a life lesson.”