I am Pallavi Rao, a designer from Mumbai and Toronto. My background is in design and fabrication, having graduated with a Bachelor’s of Interior Design degree from Ryerson University, Toronto in 2016. Prior to Mundus Urbano and MESCI, I worked at Prototype Design Lab in Toronto where I designed and fabricated spaces, art commissions and custom furniture. I developed an interest in Urban Development during a vernacular earth architecture internship at Dharmalaya Institute in India in 2015, where issues such as sustainable development, climate change, labour ethics and gentrification were addressed. During that time, I conducted independent research on learning spaces in the local region. This gave me the platform to develop my bachelor thesis “Built Spaces for Learning Environments”, a research and proposed design solution on education, children and their interaction with spaces, and sustainable, positive learning environments. In 2018, I spent some time travelling in India and gained valuable insight about the public health care system and its limitations, particularly in rural India. I have a wide berth of interests, which is ideal for studying in a multi-disciplinary programme such as Mundus Urbano, and in MESCI. Mundus Urbano has given me the basic toolset to approach the development field from the perspective of multiple disciplines, particularly within the areas of education, urban mobility and environment. In this regard, I hope MESCI will give me the opportunities and bring me closer to my goal of working in the development field with a creative mind, now with the added dimension of Economics. Finally and very importantly, I am very much looking forward a year in Roma, travelling in the region and making some new friends!