Experiences

Experiences

Experiences

Experiences

Buckeye Girls State

Buckeye Girls State is a program organized by the American Legion Auxiliary to create educated leaders and foster a love for government. After receiving a scholarship from an American Legion Auxiliary post, I was able to attend this weekend-long program in Alliance, Ohio. Out of 443 girls from across Ohio, I was elected Buckeye Girls State Governor. As Governor, I assumed the top-most ranked position in the program and was responsible for all levels of functioning government. The road to Governor was nothing but easy. After city endorsements, county endorsements, party endorsements, primary caucuses, debates, and finally the general elections along with the hours of campaigning and other program components, the program was jam-packed. This program, however, made me realize the importance of participating in government and confirmed my interest in politics and government.

Judge for a Day

The Judge for a Day program is a program for high-achieving juniors interested in law. Selected students serve as a Judge for a Day, learning about what it is like to be in the judicial branch of government. My assigned judge was Judge Jody Luebbers, a Common Pleas Judge of the Hamilton County Courthouse. As a representative from a school, I was able to spend the whole day with Judge Luebbers and listen to cases on her docket, both civil and criminal.

ACLU National Advocacy Institute

The ACLU National Advocacy Institute convenes students who are interested in social justice and gathers them to participate in a week-long course. During this course, I engaged with ACLU lawyers, community activists, and other leaders working to defend civil liberties. Notably, I met Edward Snowden, a childhood hero of mine for the whistleblowing work that he did. This experience had built-in affinity group times, a concept that I had not heard of nor witnessed before this program. I grew very close with the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) affinity group and learned the importance of community. This space that the ACLU program created paved the way for my interest in creating more affinity groups in places of gathering and learning, like schools.

Spirit of America Conference

The Spirit of America conference is a conference held in Pennsylvania to bring American high schoolers to a historic place, the grounds of the Battle of Gettysburg and other monuments, to learn about history and leadership. I received a full scholarship to this conference where students from Texas and Nebraska created the cohort. This weekend-long conference was packed with interesting information about the creation of Pennsylvania and showed me how our Nation’s early leaders led our country to success and freedom.

Junior Leadership Dayton

Junior Leadership Dayton gathers students from across the Dayton region and teaches students the roots of servant leadership. Though I am not originally from Dayton, the idea of learning this aspect of leadership intrigued me. Through monthly programming days ranging from talking to local nonprofit organizations to meeting the Mayor of Dayton and the connection with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, I was able to gain so much knowledge about city-level government functioning, an experience that I wouldn’t have been exposed to without this opportunity. Not only did I learn that but I was able to connect with other juniors from a region that wasn’t where I lived and learned more about the educational system.

West Point Ethics and Leadership Seminar

The West Point Ethics and Leadership Seminar is a leadership experience for rising leaders in school communities. As one of 3 selected from the whole school, I attended the seminar where we discussed how ethics play into leadership. Before this experience, I never thought about the extent ethics play in leadership decisions so going to this seminar enlightened me in many ways. We discussed current issues in the government like digital privacy and took to a real-life scenario where it was ethics against empathy.

Gajdi Jawani

Gajdi Jawani is Cincinnati’s premier co-ed Bhangra team. When I was little, I did Bharatnatyam (classical Indian dance). After finishing the basics of Bharatnatyam, I wanted to explore other styles of dance. Unconsciously, I fell in love with the idea of Bhangra and the stylistic choices dancers make throughout their routines. After auditions, I was selected by Gajdi Jawani as a Junior with no prior experience. When I asked what got me selected on the team, I was told that I exuded the interest to put in the effort and grow. Continuing the experience into my Senior year, Bhangra was a place where I could unleash creativity and energy in a form which I could connect to. Apart from this, I was able to meet other students from other schools who shared the same passion for dance as I did.

Camp Invention, National Inventors Hall of Fame

Camp Invention is a week-long camp that encourages STEM with younger kids. As a Leadership Intern, I volunteered to spend a week of summer with aspiring Inventors. I wanted to be a part of this experience because growing up, summer camps were my favorite things and kickstarted many hobbies that I continued in high school. For example, a coding camp that I went to in fifth grade ignited my spark for computer science. Similarly, a Speech and Debate camp showed me how important public speaking was (and the first place in a Debate tournament was a sweet bonus as well). This experience taught me the importance of patience when you are leading a group. With younger audiences that have many more needs than older ones, I found many of my peers’ patience getting tested. This showed me the path of learning how to be patient with everybody, even when the circumstances were tough.

Community Volunteering

Community was always important to me from a young age and the temple was a place where my family and I deeply felt connected. As a whole family, we spent lots of time at the temple where it became evident to me that there wasn’t a strong bond between youth members. As a small project, my friends and I gathered to volunteer every Sunday to do small chores around the temple at a grassroots level like clean dishes or serve food. This volunteering experience became a large part of my life as I saw the direct impact of youth at the forefront of temple affairs. Furthermore, it deepened my connection with my community at a larger level.

  • Invited Speaker for the Kiwanis Division 4 Picnic

  • Featured on the Gen Z's Digital Decalogue Postcast

  • Invited Speaker for the Annual American Legion Auxiliary Convention