How 2015 Belmont Alumna Tina Sharma Went From Grad to Global Product Lead at Google
Belmont alumna Tina Sharma took a gap year following her high school graduation traveling across the United States organizing grassroots movements in the political sector. A Nashville native, she found herself giving a presentation to Leadership Nashville during her travels, and in the crowd sat former Belmont Provost Dr. Thomas Burns.
At the time, she had no idea that this presentation would put her on the path to becoming a global lead for one of the most influential and cutting-edge organizations the world has ever seen — Google.
Despite growing up just a few blocks from Belmont and attending Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School, Belmont wasn’t on her radar upon graduating high school due to finances. But when Dr. Burns heard her presentation, he worked with Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Management Dr. Jose Gonzalez to craft a scholarship that changed her trajectory. Sharma enrolled as a student at Belmont in 2012 and even used this scholarship to study abroad.
“I was very grateful for the financial support I got at Belmont,” said Sharma. “I think studying abroad was one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve had, not just in college, but in life. I had incredibly supportive professors who helped me translate my paperwork so I could get a visa to go to Argentina.” 
Although already actively engaged in public service, Sharma decided to study economics and math rather than political science.
“It’s definitely interesting because I have a passion for public service, and one day I might still work in government, but I was never really as interested in the theory that comes with political science,” remarked Sharma. “But I have always loved math and economics, and after taking some classes with Economics Professor Dr. Marieta Velikova, I loved how grounded economics is in math and I almost felt like economics is closer to politics than political science is.”
While at Belmont, Sharma kept busy with a plethora of engagements outside of the classroom, one of which involved working at the office of former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean. With the mayor’s office, she worked on the city’s Google Fiber implementation, opening a door into the global giant’s world that she would soon revisit.
Sharma said the ability to pursue so many avenues of interest was the direct result of attentive and passionate professors at Belmont that put her in a position to succeed.
“I don’t think any of that would have been possible if my professors didn’t support me the way they did,” she said. “I was trying to get my degree, I had a job at the mayor’s office, I worked as a waitress and I was also working on various nonprofit boards and was engaged in my community. I remember they would let me take exams early because they knew I had to get to the mayor’s office. They also knew I was interested in studying abroad and they worked to create a scholarship for me.”
In addition to her off-campus extracurriculars, Sharma received the prestigious John Williams Heart of Belmont Award in 2015 for her commitment to Belmont’s core values, served as President of the Econ Honor Society, and participated in the NCICU Ethics Bowl.
After crafting an impressive resume for herself during her time at Belmont, Sharma moved to Mountain View, California just one week after graduating a year early and magna cum laude with a degree in applied mathematics and economics.
She began as a consultant for Google, collaborating with small-to-medium sized businesses to take advantage of Google’s ad products. From there, Sharma slid into Google’s social media sector before joining the large customer sales team where clients such as American Airlines had Sharma traveling regularly once again.
Now serving as Google’s Global Product Lead in Measurement and Privacy in New York, Sharma works with multibillion-dollar businesses to implement privacy-first measurement tools such as Google Analytics and strategize about how to unlock the full potential of the tools Google offers.
At the heart of her personal success within one of the world’s biggest tech and data companies lies the individual relationships she formed with her professors during her time at Belmont and the level of attention to detail they demonstrated with her as a student. Sharma keeps in touch with many of her professors today.
“I’m still very close to my professors,” she said. “I still text them and we still meet up when we find ourselves in the same city. For me, college was a strong foundation of people who believed in me. The small classroom size created a close-knit experience where you could build closer relationships and interact with professors. It never felt like someone was lecturing you. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for all those people who supported me and did some great work.”