Hi! I'm Sampada. I'm a graduate student in the College of Communications at The Pennsylvania State University at University Park. I'm pursuing a Ph.D. in Media Effects (Mass Communications).

My undergraduate degree is in Electronics and Telecomm. Engineering from University of Pune, in India. After my undergrad, I worked as a web designer/graphics editor for a year and later decided to join grad school.

Meanwhile, I married Sameer, whom I have known since we were both a couple of four year olds! Together, we have fostered two baby elephants: first Lualeni and then, mischievous Shimba a year later. Even though they both live in Kenya, we keep up with their progress through regular emails from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust , along with regular visits to their web page. If ever you are trying to decide on a great gift for someone, please consider fostering a baby elephant in their name! Fostering Lualeni was the best gift I have ever received...

Graduate school has been an interesting journey in many ways. I actually enjoy my research and have made great friends... Apart from work, I also "waste" my time with a lot of other things! I love to do henna - body art, beaded jewelry and have recently taken up photography... I write about my pictures here and upload some of them here. I also volunteer for Association for India's Development (A.I.D.) as time permits!

I consider my website to be an ongoing project in itself. Something that is continuously evolving and growing. This is the fourth (!) version and hopefully I will be able to keep adding and improving the content pretty regularly. So do check back often. I sincerely hope that you find something interesting while browsing through these pages.