experiential learning
Odisha Seattle Youth
Leadership
Odisha Seattle Youth is a youth organization which I co-founded in 2017. It's goal is to have a platform for youth from Odisha, an eastern state in India where my family is from to develop cultural awareness and build community involvement. The Odia population in the Greater Seattle area has been flourishing and with that so is the youth population. When I was growing up, I wish I had a group like this where I could relate who I was and what I was struggling with in finding where I belong. These past 4 years, OSY has been a passion project. We are able to connect youth across from various organizations and share our perspective. We hold cultural events for the community, hosted various fundraisers for local organizations like The Sophia Way Women's shelter and also for Adruta Children's Home in Odisha. Along the way, we have provided youth a outlet for creativity, to grow on their technical skills for event planning, funds management, marketing, networking and beyond. Over the years, we have been able to connect with youth across the world during the COVID-19 Pandemic, volunteer at town halls, serve our local shelters, interact with Odia youth in Odisha, and conduct classes to help artists. As a college student who has been fortunate to receive a education from UW, I think it's my duty to pay it forward and support youth in their development in their lives. And OSY has been a way for me to do that. I am able to lead a group of youth and learn from all that they have to offer to affect some positive impact on our community.
South Asian Study Initiative
Service
South Asia Study Initiative is an organization started by Dr. Annapurna Pandey who is a professor of anthropology at UC Santa Cruz. She has used her experiences to curate the purpose of promoting and learning the South Asian indigenous peoples’ knowledge, skills and resources of one of the world’s great civilizations. South Asian cultures are known for their diversity in terms of religions, beliefs, languages, cuisine, clothing, dance and music, among others. I was approached to be a part of this team as a youth liaison after my work in OSY. Learning more about South Asian heritage is a priority in my life and it helps me to stay connected to that part of my identity. I have been utilizing a lot of my business knowledge to help curate plans to create markets for many of the goods these artisans are making. In addition to that, on a human level, we want to share stories and connect with one another since there is so much to learn, so much perspective to share with the world. Below is the proposal and plan of a fundraiser that I spearheaded.
Goal: Support Odisha artisan communities greatly affected by the pandemic and floods, bring general awareness of their work, and advocate for proper compensation. In particular, this fundraiser will be directed towards learning more about the weaver communities in this Nuapatna, Odisha, India.
Reach: The funds raised in this program will be directed towards two particular causes:
i) Flood relief: Many of the weavers’ homes and communities have been devastated by the floods, see pictures below.
ii) Support the youth in these communities in refining their weaving skills along with building a foundation for other skills to flourish. To do this, funds will be to organize workshops for these youth where they can learn and teach about different techniques and quality assurance of their work.
Format:
The funds can be venmoed to Odisha Seattle Youth. We are hoping to then match those funds with Microsoft. Those funds will then be channelled to SASI, where they will send them to Odisha to these weaver communities.
Ask:
We would like any support from your side to help bolster our reach for this fundraiser by further legitimizing our platform and bringing any due resources to carry this out.