Curiosity, Discipline, and Scholarship: How Hutchison Helped Gaby Nair ’14 Launch Her Academic Career

Hutchison Now highlights graduates early in their careers who embody how a Hutchison education can lead anywhere you can imagine. We spoke with Gaby Nair ’14, Ph.D., a Postgraduate Research Associate and Doctoral Candidate in Politics at Princeton University, where she recently completed her PhD in political theory, and a former Morehead-Cain Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
How would you describe your journey at Hutchison, both academically and personally?

In my time at Hutchison, I was also exposed to such a rich set of extracurricular activities, from plays to sports to Destination Imagination. So, in addition to getting a lot of attention from teachers in the classroom, I got a lot of attention from skilled, dedicated adults in these other activities, and I think this helped me develop a wide-ranging set of skills. At Hutchison, I learned how to work with others, how to solve problems, how to speak in front of a crowd, and how to practice self-discipline. These are all skills that have served me extremely well as a college student, young professional, academic, and young adult.

I went to Hutchison all the way from pre-K to 12th grade, so Hutchison, for a long time, felt like a second home. I also spent a lot of time after school and in the summer at Hutchison because both of my parents worked full-time jobs. As a result, I became close with the other girls in my grade in similar situations simply because we spent so much time together.

How did your time at Hutchison help you grow as a learner and ultimately see yourself as a scholar? Looking back, was there a moment at Hutchison when you realized you loved learning or saw yourself as capable of advanced academic work?

Hutchison nurtured my precocity as a young person. I was able to take a number of advanced courses in my final two years of high school, and I was also connected to amazing summer programs (TN Governor’s School, St. Albans School of Public Service) that broadened my horizons. I can’t pinpoint a particular moment where I realized I was capable of advanced academic work; in fact, I think maybe the opposite was true. Hutchison never made me feel like I was not capable of advanced academic work. Instead, I feel like my striving was nurtured, and the doubts that I wasn’t capable didn’t have a chance to creep in. 

Left: Hutchison connected Nair with the St. Albans School of Public Service Summer Program. She attended in summer 2013 with Sarah Williamson Orr ’14 and is pictured with Allison Blankenship ’12, who attended Georgetown University. Right: As a Morehead-Cain Scholar, she lived in Cape Town, South Africa, for two months working at an urban farm.

Hutchison emphasizes critical thinking, creativity, and hard work. How were those skills developed during your time at Hutchison, and where do you see them reflected in your life now?

My current job is nearly 100% critical thinking; there is some administrative work that one has to do in a social sciences/humanities research position, but most of my time is spent in front of the computer, writing. Having such a deep background in critical thinking—and expressing that thinking in writing—has helped me immensely as a scholar. 

In Middle School, my love of reading was supported and rewarded by the librarians at Hutchison, and I was allowed to check out books from the “young adult” section because I was such a voracious reader. I won an award for checking out the most books in a school year. In Upper School, I had such amazing teachers who were keen on helping us maintain our reading habits, and they did an amazing job balancing the classics with contemporary fiction, which helped us enjoy reading. I think these kinds of choices make hard work feel a bit less like hard work.

At Hutchison, I had teachers who loved the subjects they were teaching and made learning feel like an activity, rather than work. I think that might help explain why I applied to graduate school in the first place. My work is an activity I enjoy, and even though it feels like hard work sometimes, I am also so lucky to get to work hard at doing something I like. 

You were involved in athletics at Hutchison through cross country and track. What did your experiences in athletics teach you?

While running cross country and track at Hutchison, I learned the importance of self-discipline. A PhD asks you to work on a single project on your own over the course of several years. In my case, I presented work at conferences and set goals for sharing work with my dissertation committee, but mostly, I had to rely on myself to get the writing done. Running is similar to writing a dissertation in that sense. There are races, and you have teammates to hold you accountable, but at the end of the day, how well you do is totally up to you. 

What habits or mindsets developed at Hutchison, such as perseverance or curiosity, have stayed with you through college and beyond?

At Hutchison, I was encouraged to explore by my teachers, and I think that’s helped me in my graduate school journey. One thing people tell you about writing a dissertation is that you have to love the topic because you’re stuck with it for the foreseeable future. I think Hutchison prepared me to explore the scholarly terrain in a way that allowed me to find something I am interested in; my dissertation is on participatory democracy and social change. Part of this for me, too, is feeling brave enough to pick a topic or an approach to scholarship that isn’t exactly how my advisors would approach my topic or scholarship. I was encouraged early on in my education to be brave in that way. 

How did your Hutchison experience help you get to where you are today?

I can't imagine that I would have gotten where I am without Hutchison. I had amazing teachers who encouraged me to keep learning; I had such a rich schedule of extracurricular activities that taught me important skills (discipline, teamwork, performance, time management); I had such supportive counselors who prepared me for college; I was able to apply for and participate in summer programs that pushed me to think beyond the world around me. I had all these resources funneled in the direction of my growth, so it's hard to imagine what my life might have been like had I not attended Hutchison.

Gaby Nair '14, Ph.D., is a Postgraduate Research Associate in Politics at Princeton University, where she recently defended her PhD in political theory. She holds Bachelors of Arts in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead-Cain Scholar. She previously worked at Protenus as an Associate Customer Success Manager and completed a fellowship with Venture for America. 
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