ARIANA BALAKRISHAN

I’m Ariana Balakrishnan, a junior from Austin, Texas, studying Political Science and Statistics at Columbia. My journey with CWBS started unusually early—I became the first freshman elected to the board, which gave me a front-row seat to the kind of supportive, ambitious community I had always hoped to find in college.

Professionally, I began in a fully creative space during my marketing internship at The Kindness Campaign, where I worked on branding, storytelling, and mission-driven messaging. It was meaningful work, but it also taught me that I’m happiest when creativity is paired with structure and problem-solving.

That realization led me to operations at AffiniPay the next summer, where I discovered how grounding it felt to work with processes, organization, and the behind-the-scenes systems that keep a company running. It showed me that I don’t have to choose between the creative side of myself and the analytical side—I want a career that blends both. As I look ahead to Summer 2026, I’m still exploring, but I know I’m drawn to paths that combine storytelling with strategy, data with intuition, and maybe even something entrepreneurial down the line. At this point in my journey, I’m excited by the uncertainty because it means there’s room to build something that feels uniquely mine.