With graduation approaching, we are spotlighting our amazing graduating Linguistics majors each day. For our first spotlight, we are highlighting Sparsha Muralidhara (moo-ruh-lee-tha-ruh | she/her). Sparsha is graduating with degrees in Linguistics and Behavioral/Cognitive Neuroscience. She was also recently awarded the CLAS Student Excellence Award for the year! Read more about Sparsha below!
Tell Us a Little Bit About You (how long have you been a Linguistics major, how did you become a Linguistics major, etc.)
When I first came to UF, I actually planned to pursue Linguistics as a minor, since I didn’t know all that much about the field, but one misregistration later I ended up graduating in something I’ve completely fallen in love with over the past four years. In addition to being part of the Linguistics department, I’ve also served as the Treasurer of the Undergraduate Linguistics Society and as a member of the Brain Language and Bilingualism (Blab) Lab with Dr. Kaan and Dr. Rossi. My biggest research interests in the field are definitely multilingualism and neurolinguistics, but I’m also getting really interested in my final year about computational linguistic models! Outside of linguistics time, though, I’ve also enjoyed being a part of the Gator Community as a Brain Awareness Week volunteer, president of Gator Amnesty, and a senator in the student government.
What’s next for you after graduation?
After graduation, I’m heading to India to work on some personal projects for computational parser models in my native language, Kannada, but after that I hope to pursue graduate work before heading into the workforce for projects on computational models of SLA!
What is your biggest achievement as an undergraduate?
By the book, my biggest achievement has probably been my senior thesis or something, but if I’m going to be more honest, my greatest achievement in my time at UF has probably been a cookbook of harebrained recipes developed over four years on a college student budget—including, but not limited to, deep-fried chocolate chip pancakes. Thank me later.
What will you miss most about the UF Linguistics department?
Without a DOUBT, the professors. The professors I’ve met in the ling department have been some of the coolest individuals I’ve had the pleasure of knowing, and getting to learn more about them in both professional and personal capacities has fundamentally changed my undergrad experience. They make you feel like they genuinely care about your interests and your wellbeing, and I’ve never met a department with professors across the board who you really trust.
What advice would you give junior Linguistics majors?
Before you start planning out the rest of your life, set some intentions for yourself—what is the nature of what you want to achieve? Maybe you want your future work to focus on contributing knowledge to the world. Maybe you want a sustainable career, something lucrative enough to support your personal passions. Maybe you want to give back to the community and make sure your work has tangible impact. Once you figure out what fulfills you, planning your next steps gets that much easier.