Meet Sahana Satish, a senior from Northern California. She founded BollyMoms Fitness in the summer of her freshman year in hopes of furthering her personal passion for dance, while giving back to the community. Sahana realized that most moms don’t have time to spend for themselves between childcare and their careers, so she wanted to create a program where moms can work out, learn more about dance, and have fun while they’re at it!

IG: @ssahanasatish @bollymoms

Jocelin Su is a senior who has been deeply involved in computer science, math, and AI throughout high school. To help overcome the gender gap in STEM, she led initiatives at her high school and middle school Girls Who Code Club to teach and promote programming. She founded the She.codes workshop program to spread an interest in CS to girls in the Bay Area, teaching cutting-edge topics like machine learning and app creation.

IG: @evhs_girls_who_code

Meet Abhigya Sodani, a junior from California who founded Cesion Software in his sophomore year. Cesion‘s main project, Zuriel, is an app that bolsters public school funding through leveraging local businesses. In 2018, Zuriel was awarded the first-ever Kintone Social Impact Challenge Grant!

IG: @absodani

Jayasree Peri, a junior from Northern California, volunteers at FCSN (Friends of Children with Special Needs) and teaches special needs students of all ages piano along with other vocational skills. She has a younger brother with autism who inspires her to advocate for autism acceptance and awareness. Jayasree hopes that she can spread positive messages about mental health and developmental disabilities, starting with her extraordinary volunteering efforts!

IG: @jayasreeperi

Archika Dogra, a high school junior from the Greater Seattle Area, is passionate about using STEM to catalyze social change. She has worked in various environments, including Stanford and NASA, on projects that put important social issues at the forefront of the technology agenda. Passionate about equitable education, Archika co-founded The EduSTEM Initiative, and international organization that has empowered over 1000 minority youths across 10 chapters and 3 countries to pursue STEM. Archika is a strong advocate for diversity and equitable access in education and hopes further empower individuals globally through her research and outreach.

IG: @archikadogra @edusteminitiative

Ashley Chu is a senior at Alameda High School where she enjoys breaking computers, developing mobile applications, and getting lost in San Francisco. She is a strong believer in ensuring that every girl has the opportunity to feel confident and capable in whatever they achieve. Ashley founded She STEMs, a youth-led initiative that has taught over two-hundred girls to build confidence with code through workshops, camps, and events. Today, they are proud to have over 7 partnerships with organizations and corporations like CSForAll and Disney and have been recognized by the Tory Burch Foundation and Education First. Next year, Ashley will be attending UC Berkeley, and she hopes to continue spreading confidence to young girls everywhere.

IG: @ashleymchu @she_stems

Shelby O’Neil, a high school senior, founded Jr. Ocean Guardians to educate people on how to create a sustainable future for our planet. She created a challenge to get everyone involved called #NoStrawNovember, which ditched over 32 million single-use plastic straws, coffee stirrers and citrus per year by companies such as Alaska Airlines, Delta Airlines, Dignity Health, etc. Now, November in California is also officially known as No Straw November thanks to Senate Resolution 139.

IG: @_oneil_ @jr.ocean.guardians

Peyton, a junior at Taylor Allderdice High School, is the founder of Global Minds Initiative, a student-led movement to combat cultural intolerance and discrimination in schools internationally. Global Minds is an afterschool program that bridges English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and Native English Speaking (NES) students. Since 2016, Global Minds has expanded into 23 schools and 2 countries impacting over 1,500 students. Peyton is a TEDx speaker, the recipient of the 2017 YWCA Racial Justice Award in Youth Achievement, Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award, and the Coro Innovation Leadership Award. Peyton’s work has been featured on the Today Show, Fox News, in Teen Vogue, and the New York Times.

IG: @peytonklein @globalmindsint

Nikita Bharati is a rising junior from Chandler, Arizona! She’s very passionate about increasing inclusivity in STEM fields, especially when it comes to the significant gender gap that is still present today. With this passion, she created a social impact project from it, and she’s now the President/Co-founder of an organization called Girl STEMpowerment. They provide STEM-based workshops to young girls in 3rd-8th grade, giving them the opportunity to feel empowered while exploring different field in STEM. Now, they have three chapters around the globe with four more starting as of next school year! When she’s not working with young girls through Girl STEMpowerment, Nikita enjoys working with an amazing group of high school students to run the Arizona Youth Climate Strike along with other STEM and civic based extracurriculars!

IG: @nikitabharati @girlstempowerment @climatestrikeaz

Yalini Thillaikumaran is a junior from Northern California who has been involved in Youth & Government for 2 years. Through participating, she has honed her public speaking skills and thrived in her ability to express herself in a safe space, while learning more about the nation’s political climate. Currently, Yalini serves as the secretary of her NorCal delegation, and has held the adversary general position statewide. Yalini says that Y&G has taught her a great deal about politics and has made it possible to pursue her dreams.

IG: @yaliknee

Mishti Dhawan is a rising junior at Interlake High School in Bellevue, Washington. Passionate about bringing STEM education to youth in her community by breaking socio-economic barriers, she co-founded STEMTeen, an initiative that seeks to bring free hands on STEM workshops to youth in the Greater Seattle Area. Beyond STEMTeen, Mishti is also passionate about political science and activism. In addition to wanting to pursue Bioengineering in the future, she believes that activism is the most effective catalyst for change. To build a wave of youth activists in Washington, she works with Next Generation Politics, as the co-director, to organize youth forums, voter registration drives, and other non-partisan political activities. In the upcoming academic year, she hopes to expand both STEMTeen and Next Generation Politics through outreach.

IG: @mishdhawan @stemteen @nextgenpolwashington

Andrea Liao is a high school junior from the Greater Seattle Area who is passionate about the intersections between the arts and activism. Having grown up between the pages of her favorite novels, Andrea believes that literature is a form of empowerment. She founded Book the Future, an organization dedicated to global youth literacy, to support youths in need of reading resources. Over the past few years, Book the Future has raised thousands of books and impacted thousands of youth worldwide. Andrea has received various awards and honors in recognition of her work. She hopes to use her platform to expand Book the Future’s outreach and further the youth literacy movement.

IG: @bookthefuture

Aditi Chatradhi is a rising college freshman at Columbia University and the founder of theCodeMatrix. Through theCodeMatrix, 85 high school volunteers have taught 490 kids to-date to think like programmers through games, activities and projects. Now, 4 years later, theCodeMatrix is a student-run nonprofit organization with branches in 7 different US cities and Bangalore, India. Aditi was also involved in Speech and Debate as a Policy Debater and National Extemporaneous speaker, and competed on a state and national level. Another big part of her life was the Mitty Advocacy Project, a student-run team drafting and advocating for policy proposals in 5 key issue areas on a local, state, and national level.

IG: @a.ditic