Dr Jaya has been unstoppable and has come a long way in her educational journey. An academically gifted and blessed Jaya not just strives for knowledge but also imparts it.

Dr Jaya Arora is an Assistant Professor at the University College of Science, Mohanlal Sukhadia University. Jaya, who joined in 2012, has been in this field for the last nine years. Born and brought up and married in Udaipur, she has done her schooling at St Teresa School.

Jaya shares that since the very beginning she was interested in pursuing engineering and had a strong mathematical foundation. However, her parents, who were of the opinion that engineering is not meant for girls, didn’t let her pursue it. With no alternative, Jaya had to opt for Biology and felt those two years to be drastic since she couldn’t connect herself with the subject.

After completing her schooling, Jaya wanted to switch to Biotechnology which was booming during those times, however, she couldn’t pursue it since her family wanted her to get married and take up something not so hard for the time being. Jaya felt a little disconnected, the same feeling which she had when she couldn’t take up Maths as her subject.  Thereafter she pursued her Bachelors and Masters in Science with Botany as her subject.

Jaya shares that her in-laws and husband were quite supportive when it came to her education. Then she decided to appear for the NET exam and cleared it with flying colours and also received a fellowship. After that Jaya enrolled herself in a PhD program and is today an Assistant Professor at the same University.

Since Jaya had already chosen Botany as her field of specialization, she eventually convinced herself to study and develop an interest in it. She used to take notes for every topic and became the first in her college to take exams in English medium as opposed to everyone who used to take it in Hindi medium.

Speaking about COVID times, Jaya shares that in terms of teaching it was a learning opportunity for her yet time-consuming at the same time. She shares her experience of creating presentations for better learning of students and realized she was able to deliver more than in a classroom environment. Those times introduced her to various sources available online and she ended up creating a YouTube Channel of her own. However, she feels that creating lessons from home was a bit challenging since she lives in a joint family where a home is never a quiet place. From the students’ perspective, she believes that it was a challenge for them to stay focused and it also led to an increase in their screen time.

Delving into Jaya’s personal life, all of her time went into cooking, trying recipes, playing with her kids, working out and spending time with family. However, she couldn’t get time to pursue her hobbies owing to work pressure and managing household chores.

She urges today’s generation to study from books instead of relying on online content and to revisit the basic concepts to freshen up their knowledge. For aspiring students of Botany, she says that one should be in a daily habit of reading books and keep a track of recent trends in the field like the ongoing impact of pollution on vegetation. “If you have a love for plants, you will fall in love with this subject too”, she says.

Moving further, she discusses career options in this field which could be in teaching or the research domain. Discussing the initiatives taken by the Modi government in this area, she suggests that students could also have their own startups in vermicomposting or mushroom culture. They could also have their own nursery or launch an innovative product for the society for which proper training and guidance is a prerequisite. She also urges students to pay attention to their goals and not waste time thinking about what others are doing.

Jaya does not have a role model as such, however, she has absorbed the good values of people along the way and inculcated them in her own life. She remembers a teacher from her primary school who motivated her to secure first rank in her 4th standard and since then Jaya has always topped the list.

If Jaya were to fly in a time machine, she would like to revisit her childhood and spend her time playing and enjoying with friends since she never got to live those moments being engrossed in studies all the time. However, she also says that had she not worked hard during those times, she wouldn’t have been where she is today.

Jaya shares that she loves adventurous sports and has always wanted to be a strong woman physically. She used to visualize herself in an officer level post and had also joined NCC, however she couldn’t take it forward. Professional learning, dancing and painting are some of her dreams she would like to pursue if given an opportunity.

She terms two motivational quotes which she recites every morning to keep herself up and which have helped her during testing times. “Get up, get going and don’t stop until you reach your goal” and “Do your duty without thinking about results”, quotes Jaya.

Jaya is also a member of the Indian Science Congress, however owing to work and time constraints, she is currently not active in the meetings being held.