Students in Action

Rewire Community's Changemakers is a non-profit youth group based in San Ramon. The group is committed to raising awareness and education for social justice issues with a vision to building integrated, inclusive communities.

Changemaker youth leaders Eshna Kulshreshtha, Mahika Arya, Vaidehee Durgude and Avani Gireesha have been active during the pandemic to create healthier communities.

Through the pandemic and SIP, the Changemaker leads have organized online youth check-ins to create a sense of community, connection and keep healthy dialogues going.

The conversations have ranged from the importance of mental health, to recreational games, hosting a PRIDE event with local GSA leads, and presentations on social justice. The most recent effort is a weekly book club building diversity and equity among the youth. By collaborating with other groups, all of four youth leads have also been sewing cotton masks that were donated to various non-profits and/or people in need such as farmers, shelters, low income communities and Navajo Nation.

Vaidehee Durgude is going to be a senior at Monte Vista. Vaidehee is passionate about equity in all its forms, and believes strongly in questioning one's own internalized biases and listening to others share their stories.

Mahika Arya is going to be a junior at Dougherty Valley High School. She is very engaged in social justice, enjoys reading and drinking coffee, and making her community more aware one person at a time.

Eshna Kulshreshtha is a rising junior at Dougherty Valley High School. Eshna is passionate about sparking change in the fields of environmental protection and climate justice, as well as being an ally to the LGBTQ plus community. She believes that no matter how small, every person can make a difference if they choose to.

Avani Gireesha is going to be a junior at Venture High School and loves giving a voice to those who have not been heard. She is passionate about de-stigmatizing mental health and is currently actively working on Covid-19 relief with local non-profits and creating inclusive events with Rewire Community.

Rewire Community on Facebook
Rewire Community website

My name is Sarveshwaran Manivelan, the founder and director of a student-run organization created when quarantine started in March 2020 called Clever Code, an organization with a mission to give opportunities to the youth to learn coding and anything STEM-related topics during and after quarantine.

Clever Code has been doing a STEM tutoring program when school started and we've paired high schoolers and adults to elementary and middle schoolers for STEM ( mainly math and programming ) tutoring. A little about myself, I am a freshman at California High School and I am extremely interested in math and programming.

 

Hey, my name is Prasanna Premkumar, Director of Sponsorship and Outreach for Clever Code. I am a sophomore at Dougherty Valley High School. I enjoy studying biotechnology and an aspiring data scientist. I am also an avid table tennis player. I have been interested in data science and various STEM fields, ever since I was introduced to it as a kid. Through Clever Code, I hope to provide many other kids with the same experiences that I had that led to my passion for the STEM field.

I’m Maleyna Aquino, Director of Operations for Clever Code. I’m currently a sophomore at Dougherty Valley High School. I love coding, math, robotics, kung-fu, and tutoring. I have been interested in the STEM field since I was 10 years old, which is also when I took my first coding class. I hope by working with Clever Code, I strengthen people’s passion for the STEM field. I also wish to be a role model, especially to girls, and show them how to be a leader in STEM.

Clever Code's Instagram can be accessed here.

Students in Service is a group of high school and college students based in the East Bay that is committed to assisting local communities and at-risk populations in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the recent unique circumstances COVID-19 has created, a large number of organizations are in need of assistance ranging from local city and county governments to nonprofits and businesses. Our group has dedicated itself to serving these organizations and other in-need populations within the community.

More info, including contact email: ebstudentsinservice.org

Projects (Past & Present)

Grocery Matching Algorithm, Local Business & Nonprofit Consulting, Mask Making, Mental Health, Organizational Outreach, Racial Allyship, Senior Letter Writing, Senior Resource Spreadsheet, Senior Tech Literacy, Virtual Tutoring, Writing Contest, and Youth Buddy Program

Organizations (Serviced or Servicing)

Agape Assisted Living, Alliance Home Healthcare, American Legion Post 246, Boys and Girls Clubs of Contra Costa, Building Futures, Carlton Senior Living, City of Hayward, City of San Ramon, CityTeam Oakland, Contra Costa County District 2, Eden Housing, Free Masketeers, Immigration Institute of the Bay Area, Oakland At Risk, One For The World, Sunrise Senior Living, Visiting Angels Senior Care, and West Oakland Health Council

Team Members

Ada Zhong (Northwestern ‘24), Aditi Raju (Dougherty Valley ‘21), Albert Sun (Duke ‘23), Alvin Zhang (UChicago ‘23), Anish Bathwal (UPenn ‘23), Arshia Mehta (Barnard ‘24), Daniel Zhang (UMichigan ‘24), Danielle Lee (Cal High ‘21), David Jung (Columbia ‘23), David Zhi Luo Zhang (Dougherty Valley ‘21), Elaine Yang (Johns Hopkins ‘24), Eshal Sandhu (Dougherty Valley ‘22), Evan Siu (UWashington ‘23), Jade Wang (Dougherty Valley ‘22), Jasmine Aggarwal (Dougherty Valley ‘21), Junwoo Kang (Duke ‘24), Kavin Kumaravel (UC Berkeley ‘24), Keshav Raghu (UChicago ‘22), Matt Oflas (USC ‘23), Megha Bhargava (UC Irvine ‘23), Meghna Sudhakar (Dougherty Valley ‘21), Mishka Narasimhan (WashU ‘24), Ruchir Baronia (UC Berkeley ‘24), Saad Jamal (UC Berkeley ‘23), Samik Gupta (Dougherty Valley ‘21), Sanjana Ranganathan (Dougherty Valley ‘21), Sarah Yao (Dougherty Valley ‘21), Sean Lee (Northwestern ‘23), Shaheer Sandhu (UC Berkeley ‘23), Shobha Joneja (Santa Clara U ‘24), Shruti Adusumilli (UC Davis ‘23), Shrutik Kulkarni (Dougherty Valley ‘21), Stephanie Yu (UChicago ‘23), Tanaya Bhakat (UChicago ‘23), Tristan Shaughnessy (DVC ‘23), Vikram Balasubramanian (UPenn ‘23), Vineela Gogineni (UC Berkeley ‘24), Vishruti Ganesh (MIT ‘23), Vivian Kuang (UC Berkeley ‘24), Won Bin Lee (UPenn ‘23)

Paul Zhang (left), a rising senior attending Dougherty Valley High School, is a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of Edu Atlas — an easy-to-navigate website with fun and educational activities for children. Edu Atlas is a collection of high-quality, categorized activities for children to browse through and select on their own.

Edu Atlas was originally envisioned by Paul’s San Diego friend Vivian (center), who’s the Executive Director. Amber (right), also from San Diego, is a co-founder in addition to directing the #CardsforCaregivers initiative, which gives children the opportunity to create appreciation cards for medical personnel battling the COVID-19 crisis. Both Vivian and Amber are rising seniors at Canyon Crest Academy. Thank you for reading, and please check out Edu Atlas!

Paul Zhang is also the founder and director of Give Local— a website with local charitable organizations you can donate to, listed by county. These include community response funds, hospitals requesting PPE, and food banks in need of donations. Through Give Local, Paul hopes to save donors valuable time that would’ve been spent on researching local organizations to donate to and help concentrate support in local organizations already dedicated to public service. Thank you for reading, and please consider donating to organizations listed by Give Local!

I am Parul Gupta, a junior at Foothill High School and I am the lead founder of Edutine, a community non-profit that connects passionate tutors with students who need additional help in their classes.

When I saw my 10 year old sister struggling to stay positive during this time since her extra curricular classes were cancelled, I realized that as much as COVID-19 is impacting me, it is even worse for younger children. I then decided to create a free, online peer tutoring service, Edutine. I got together with some of my friends and laid out the details before we made it official. Not only did I want to provide help in school subjects, but I also wanted students to be able to make friends online in a safe environment through engaging in extra curriculars like Speech, Creative Writing, Art, Computer Coding, World Languages, etc.

Edutine was founded in April 2020 and became an official community nonprofit over the summer. Over the summer, we offered many extra curricular classes for those who would like to explore some activities and for those who would like to get a head start on the classes they would be taking in the Fall. We currently have over 185 students and have spent over 1200 hours tutoring K-12 students of all backgrounds. The classes are free of charge, and the tutors are high school volunteers. For more information, you can visit our website. Currently, we have both one on one and group classes available, and we plan to host a Virtual Thanksgiving Boot Camp!

Here is the rest of our amazing, hardworking staff team who are all juniors at Foothill High (Left to Right): Kaviya Raja (Co-founder & Treasurer), Emily Lu (Reachout Manager & Secretary), Sindhu Gajjela (Public Relations Manager), Yoonseo Choi (Communications Liaison), and Ella Xu (Technical Director)

    

Feni Tutoring is a tutoring service for students who are struggling academically and need support from peers to reach their potential at school. As high school students, we are the most reliable sources of direct information on what younger children must learn in order to efficiently prepare for the upcoming years. We aim to offer affordable, reliable tutoring to build fundamental math and science skills to foster success both inside and outside the classroom. Moreover, all of our profits go directly to St Jude’s Children’s Hospital to ensure a brighter future for both children in the hospital and those in our community. We have developed a specialized curriculum for students in each grade and can easily adapt to each student’s skill level and aspirations. We are now accepting students to be tutored through Zoom  (grades 1-9).

 

Our Directors

Shweta Pattnaik

My name is Shweta Pattnaik & I am the founder/CEO of Feni Tutoring Foundation. I started this organization because I wanted to make an impact on the community around us by facilitating the spread of education, while simultaneously giving the children at St. Jude’s a fighting chance to come out as survivors on the other side.  I am a current junior at Dougherty Valley High School who has been tutoring for about 2 years & has a great deal of experience in the field. I am looking forward to speaking with you all!

 

Seeya Pillai

My name is Seeya Pillai and I'm Co-Founder and Website Manager of Feni Tutoring Foundation. I'm excited to be part of this organization because I would love to foster learning and help children succeed in their education career. I wholeheartedly believe in our cause and together we can make an impactful change for the children at St. Jude's Hospital. I am a junior at Dougherty Valley High School and I have a lot of experience working with children and encouraging the love for STEM.

For more information or to book a service visit fenitutoring.com

At Genuine Global Foundation, we have one mission. Providing aid to people who need it the most. Our purpose is to help people in any way we can during these tough times, as well as providing opportunities for volunteers to support their community along with us. We use various platforms to do this, such as LinkedIn and our own app (coming soon). Our team is distributing LinkedIn Premium subscriptions (received from LinkedIn directors and also funded through donations) to individuals who are in desperate need of a job. People have given over $1.4k in donations so far! We have found success in our most recent campaign, our LinkedIn project, and we hope to continue it to help as many people we can.

Learn more: projectgenuine.com

View other social media links

Row 1 (L-R): Zane Salah, Co Founder/Website Manager at John’s Creek High School; Aditya Chudasama, Co Founder/Content Creator at Amador Valley High School; Abhyudaya Srivastava, Co Founder/Content Creator at California High School; Raghav Misra, Co Founder/Technology at Amador Valley High School. Row 2 (L-R): Yash Kaushik, Head Founder at Foothill High School; Lehuy Hoang, Co Founder/Technology at Foothill High School; Aaryan Munshi, Co Founder at Cupertino High School; Chris Kavin, Co Founder at Foothill High School.

 

Paul Zhang, a rising senior attending Dougherty Valley High School, is the founder and director of Give Local— a website with local charitable organizations you can donate to, listed by county. These include community response funds, hospitals requesting PPE, and food banks in need of donations. Through Give Local, Paul hopes to save donors valuable time that would’ve been spent on researching local organizations to donate to and help concentrate support in local organizations already dedicated to public service. Thank you for reading, and please consider donating to organizations listed by Give Local!

Hi! I’m Michelle Kim and I’m an incoming senior at Dougherty Valley High School. I have an interest in computer engineering and playing sports, such as badminton and tennis. I’m also passionate about understanding Korean culture and spreading them to new people which is one of the main reasons why I joined Hansamo. Having first joined Hansamo in 6th grade, I now proudly stand as the student body president.

Hansamo is a non-profit organization in Contra Costa County established in 2011, composed of local Korean-American students and parents that have the passion to promote and recognize the beauty of Korean language and culture. Our primary aim is to assemble strong leaders who can further incorporate Korean culture into our society through various volunteering services and activities in support of diversity.

Our organization consists of Korean classes, a performance and dance team, newsletter team, web team, and PR team. Before the pandemic, we had been practicing Korean traditional instruments together and actively engaging in various events to help promote Korean culture to more people. Due to the pandemic, many events and performances were cancelled along with our weekly classes and activities. We have been holding online classes so we can continue our practice for the performance and dance team.

Recently, we have also taken the initiative to support our local hospitals in their endeavor to fight against the Coronavirus by presenting gift baskets, video messages, and thank you cards.

Thank You to Our Medical Heroes & COVID19 Project Participants during the Pandemic: 

Samulnori	Dance	Nanta	Communication
Michelle Kim	Sophia Bek	Alexis Kwon	Kate Suah Lim
Junyoung Jeong	Jennifer Son	Alexander Choi	Hannah Kimyung Kang
Minho Jeong	Alexis Kwon	Alexander Pak	Junyoung Jeong
Woohyuk Choi	Erica Kim	Alyssa Kwon	Rhea Jeongeun Park
Eumin Lee		Brian Choi	Brian Yoo
Rachel Pak		Katelyn Pak	Iris Park
Chayeon Son		Kyle Chun
Jennifer Choi
Kenny Han
Daniel Jung

Video for the thank you messages to local hospitals:

For more information about Hansamo, visit hansamo.org

Help SOAR is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping restaurant workers whose jobs have been impacted as a result of COVID-19. With operations from San Francisco all the way to New York, Help SOAR aims to help restaurant workers across the country. The Restaurant Industry was hit very hard during the pandemic, and millions of Restaurant Workers were laid off and furloughed as a result of the closures across the country. At Help SOAR, we work with impacted restaurant workers to help them get back to a state of financial stability in two distinct ways.

First, we help restaurant workers, who were laid off or furloughed from their jobs, find new jobs. We meet with them one on one to discuss the issues they faced and what types of jobs they are looking for now. After understanding their criteria, we find them a list of jobs and help them apply, additionally calling restaurants and other places where they may want to be hired, in order to speed up the process for them and get them placed into a job.

At Help SOAR, we also help impacted restaurant workers start home-based food enterprises. We guide restaurant workers through the process of getting started with selling food out of their homes. We walk them through the legal requirements involved in order to get started and teach them one on one, or in workshops. This serves as another source of revenue for them, and allows them to work out of the comfort and safety of their own home.

Website: helpsoar.org 
Instagram: @help_soar  
Facebook: /helpsoar

Our Team:

Ronit Batra is a junior at Monte Vista High School, CA, and is the founder and president of Help SOAR. He is passionate about empowering his community and contributing towards society’s economic development. As a person who enjoys eating out and exploring diverse cuisines, he understood the impact that COVID-19 had on the restaurant industry. With SOAR, he hopes to give the impacted Restaurant Workers the wings they need to fly again!

My name is Krish Pathak. I'm a high schooler who loves playing soccer, tutoring, and getting involved with the community. I’m excited to be a part of the SOAR team and can’t wait to help people impacted get back on their feet. I know people who have been impacted and how hard it can be, so I want to do everything I can to make sure people have jobs so they can continue providing for their families. My hope is through SOAR we can aim to keep communities afloat so none are impacted too drastically during this hard time.

Arnav Verma is a sophomore at Monte Vista High School. He is an active member of his school's speech and debate team. He works with SOAR to reach out to people in the community and spreads the word, as the head of community outreach. He hopes to help as many people as possible, and make as much of an impact as possible with SOAR.

Sammyo Roychowdhury is a student at Monte Vista High School. He is on the basketball team and is very passionate about helping those in need. As a member of Help SOAR, Sammyo finds people to partner with, including Large Nonprofit Organizations and Public Officials. He hopes to help as many people as possible as a member of the organization.

Help SOAR also has a fabulous East Coast team led by Jack Nelson. They are based out of New York and have been a tremendous help in helping the organization grow to a national level. Key team members in the East Coast also include Marcus Shaw, Henry Grieco, and Linus Grieco.

High School Services is a platform designed to connect SRVUSD students to the larger community. High schoolers can advertise their businesses, services, events, and fundraisers for free! Community members can easily access upcoming fundraisers and support small businesses from a centralized location. On this website, you can find the amazing work of local students - handmade jewelry, custom shoes, tutoring services, business workshops, toy drives, boba fundraisers, and much more!

Created by students from all 4 SRVUSD high schools, the website aims to increase community interconnectedness, especially during these trying times. During COVID-19, the founders noticed many fantastic student organizations willing to help and community members in need of help, as well as vice versa. The idea was to make a platform to bridge the gap to connect high school organizations with the community at large. In the few months since its inception, it has already connected nearly 100 student-run activities to an audience of 5000+.

For more information, visit: https://highschoolservices.com/

Instagram: @highschoolservices

Jayna Huang is a junior at Monte Vista High School. She sees this project as a great way to help the community and simultaneously assist the efforts of many youth-led organizations working to make a difference in her community. In her free time, she enjoys playing soccer, watching sunsets, and hanging out with friends.

Cindy Zhu is a junior at California High School with an interest in community organizing and public policy. In her free time, she enjoys hiking with friends and trying new food.

Kevin Wang is a junior at Monte Vista High School. He participates in choir, several school clubs, and volunteer work. Loves to sing, watch Netflix, and read.

My name is Allison Cui and I’m currently a junior at Dougherty Valley High School. In my free time, I like to play tennis, draw, and spend time with family and friends!

Charlie Gu is a current junior at Monte Vista High School. When he’s not attending Zoom calls or doing homework, Charlie spends his time working with the High School Services organization. The HSS platform allows community members to advertise fundraisers, events, or local businesses, all for no cost. It’s also a great way for prospective volunteers to lend a hand and give back to their town. With the onset of the pandemic, it’s easy to feel disconnected from one’s peers, and Charlie believes that there is no better way of bridging these social divides than through finding new ways to volunteer and supporting local establishments.

Hello everyone, my name is Hasita Manda. I am an incoming junior at Quarry Lane School. My sister, Bhavya Manda, is an incoming 7th grader at Diablo Vista Middle School. We both founded Imaginative Hearts, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to serving its community and helping the environment.

Imaginative Hearts is comprised of dedicated members who are determined to take part in community service, not letting the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions restrict them from bettering the community and protecting the environment. Imaginative Hearts is a non-profit which is 100% comprised of members with utmost dedication, passion, and creativity. This is why we refer to ourselves as a community instead of an organization.

Imaginative Hearts has multiple projects that touch upon multiple real-world issues, raises awareness about them and find solutions. Our first project is the #NoPlastic Initiative. This initiative was started in response to the vast amounts of plastics that are thrown into the ocean. After researching further into this, we found that over 8 million tons of plastic are thrown into the oceans every year. This is impacting our environment very negatively, hurting our oceans and marine life. After more thorough research, we found that recycling plastic is not enough.

Therefore, the #NoPlastic Initiative encourages others to reuse plastics instead of recycling them or throwing them away. There are various projects under this initiative, such as making plastic water bottle bird feeders, plastic yogurt tub plant pots, and plastic room decor. This initiative is for kids and adults of all ages. We encourage others to use creativity and imagination to come up with more ways of reusing plastics and making projects. This is one of many ways to have fun while protecting our environment. We were inspired to help our community through our first of many projects, by reusing and upcycling plastics to make creative projects to help our environment, rather than recycling them or throwing them away.

The #NoPlastic Initiative was also inspired by the efforts done by Dr. Jane Goodall's “Roots and Shoots”. There is a Roots and Shoots club at our school, which inspired us to start this organization and this project. It has been our long-term dream to start an organization that makes a positive impact in our environment. Our goal for Imaginative Hearts and the #NoPlastic Initiative is that they become global. We believe that the world can work together, as a team, and solve the issue of plastic pollution. TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More). In this case, if we all work together, we can all achieve our goal: to reduce the amounts of plastics that end up in our environment and our oceans.

The most important aspect of Imaginative Hearts, however, is its CORE Team and members. Our seven dedicated, passionate officers have taken the initiative to lead the organization to success at achieving its goals, and work together with the members to make our projects successful. Here is our CORE team:

Co-founder/Executive Director: Hasita Manda, an incoming junior at the Quarry Lane School

Co-founder/Executive Director: Bhavya Manda, an incoming 7th grader at Diablo Vista Middle School

 

Vice Presidents of Public Relations: Tejasvi Hariharan, an incoming junior at the Quarry Lane School, and Varsha Kuchibotla, an incoming sophomore at California High School

Vice President of Projects: Aheli Banerjee, an incoming junior at Monte Vista High School

Vice President of Membership: Srusti Acharya, an incoming junior at the Quarry Lane School

Youth Secretary: Nithya Kuchibotla, an incoming 5th grader at Twin Creeks Elementary School

Youth Secretary: Alekhya Khandrika, an incoming 6th grader at Peterson Middle School

We have a website where we post all the information about our organization and our #NoPlastic Initiative. We also have an Instagram page (@imaginativehearts) where we will post updates, progress, achievements, and pictures of our projects. We are looking for more people to participate in this initiative and help us achieve our goal and protect the environment.

Our vision statement for Imaginative Hearts: An imaginative community, gleaming with passion and determination, inspired to help develop a better society.

Imaginative Hearts strongly advocates for protecting the environment and this is one way we contributed to a better society and community, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    

Hello! Our names are Divya, Aavani, Mira, Tarini, and Shreya, and we are a small group of teenagers from San Ramon who started an organization known as the Jasmine Foundation which focuses on teenage mental health. Teenage mental health is currently a prevalent issue because many teenagers don’t always feel comfortable or safe talking about their well-being with their parents, school counselors, or friends. Our goal was to create an anonymized, free, and accessible service that allows teens to have access to mental-health resources.

Here are some cool features on our website:

• Peer Support Groups: where teenagers may chat with other teenagers that have the same interest/hobby as them, and can start their own group with people of their choice for mental health support
• A 30-second survey teens can take to be matched up with a counselor that suits their specific needs, and direct peer support, which is an alternative to those who feel uncomfortable with professional counseling, where teenagers may receive direct support from an experienced peer in order to help them manage their mental health issues
• Specialized mental health resources for men, those who identify as LGBTQIA+ and minorities
• A place where teens can submit mental health/psychology-related content that they created to get a chance to be featured on our Blog page, and where they can read the stories of other teens as well!

Visit our website here

The Jasmine Foundation also plans to hold seminars related to mental health for teens in the coming future, so stay tuned for more information!

Follow our social media where we spread awareness about current issues/mental health:

Instagram: @thejasmineefoundation
Tiktok: @jasminefoundation
Email: jasmineefoundation@gmail.com

Who we are

Technology Team:

Mira Prabhakar, Chief Operating Officer
Hey, I’m Mira Prabhakar! I’m an incoming sophomore at California High School. My interests are art, writing and science! I also love to cook and read and bother my friends whenever I can. I spend most of my free time drawing or trying to do something creative.

Tarini Raj, Chief Marketing Officer
Hey! I’m Tarini Raj and I’m an incoming sophomore at California High School. My interests are playing soccer, listening to music, and watching TV and I enjoy spending time with my friends and family.

Shreya Korlipara, Chief Financial Officer
Hey! I’m Shreya. I’m an incoming sophomore at Dougherty Valley High School who has a passion for all the sciences. I love studying and doing complex research in topics related to the biology, chemistry, psychology, and medical field, and want to pursue a science-related major in my future. In my free time, I love dancing, spending time with my friends and family, watching TV, and listening to K-Pop.

Management Team:

Aavani Raj, Chief Executive Officer
Hi, I’m Aavani, and I’m an incoming Senior at California High School. I have a passion for science, especially Biology, and I volunteer my time at science museums to spread my love of science to kids. I love watching movies, baking, writing, and spending time with my dog!
 

Divyabharathi Senthilarumugam, Chief Legal Officer 
Hi, my name is Divya and I’m an incoming senior at California High School. I love to spend time listening to music, jamming to BTS with friends, making DIYs, and just being around others.

    

KidtoKid Greeting connects art to people through our selection of hand-designed greeting cards. Our mission is to create brighter futures for the patients at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. Since 2017, KidtoKid has donated 100% of proceeds and more than $9,500 to the LPCH’s Children’s Fund at local farmer markets and sales of greeting cards. As an established club at Dougherty Valley High School, KidtoKid promotes artistic creativity and provides marketing, business, and PR training for student volunteers. Club members from grades 9-12 are offered opportunities to showcase their artistic abilities in monthly design submissions and cultivate their leadership skills at weekly farmer markets. We strive to inspire the future generations of artists and leaders to surpass their limitations.

To learn more, visit http://www.kidtokidgreeting.com and https://www.stanfordchildrens.org

 

Harish Balasubramanian is a junior at Dougherty Valley High School. Harish immediately knew that this pandemic would greatly affect the education of many of the students throughout San Ramon. Furthermore, he knew that many of the students throughout San Ramon wanted opportunities to learn new and exciting things, but the pandemic had made this very difficult. Thus, Harish held a free summer Java course (where over 100 people signed up for the first eight-week session), and Harish is currently the founder and head of KnowHow (an initiative that conducts weekly workshops for students throughout the city of San Ramon and beyond on interesting topics like Data Analysis, Data Science, Machine Learning, Public Speaking, Python programming, and more!).

The free summer Java course was a fun program for beginners, who have no experience with programming, to learn the fundamentals of Java, and move on to more complex topics like recursion and polymorphism. He wanted to make sure that anyone should be able to understand these coding lessons, so the Java class started with basics like variables and moved up in difficulty. A beginner with absolutely no experience should be able to attend all of the classes and be able to come out with a basic understanding of programming and Java. Harish didn’t want anyone to miss out on this great opportunity, so if you would like to learn Java, all of the classes were recorded, so you can watch all of them on his YouTube channel. Just make sure to code along as you watch the videos to truly understand everything covered in the videos.

In addition, Harish has founded KnowHow, which has helped many students across San Ramon. KnowHow is a program that runs weekly workshops on a variety of topics from Data Analysis to Public Speaking to College Admissions. No matter what you like, you are going to find a topic that you are interested in! KnowHow has around 100 members right now, so if you want to participate in a fun workshop and learn something new, make sure to join KnowHow! You can join KnowHow by creating a Discord account and clicking this link.

Also, Harish knew that volunteering opportunities would be greatly affected by the pandemic, so he made sure to partner KnowHow with one of the largest volunteering clubs in Dougherty Valley High School, CSF. This partnership enabled many students in Dougherty Valley High School to be able to volunteer during this pandemic and make sure that they can help the community during this troubling time.

If you are interested in what he is doing or need to contact him for any reason, you can contact him by sending a direct message through Twitter or you can send him a direct message through Discord by joining the KnowHow Discord server and sending him a private message.

Meaningful Teens is designed to connect youth with organizations that can benefit from volunteer support. Through the use of online technology, our motivated volunteer tutors emerging bilinguals individuals directly from all across the country and beyond. This work will not only help educate learners from nonprofit partners, but it will also enable our high school tutors to expand their view of the world. Meaningful Teens currently has more than 200 volunteers and helping more than 150 students.

Sign up to volunteer at www.meaningfulteens.org.

Instagram: @meaningful_teens

Founding Students:

  

Isabella Capelli (rising 11th grader at San Ramon Valley High School) - Growing up in a multilingual family has fostered in me a love of different languages and cultures. I learned to translate for my grandparents at an early age and have developed a great appreciation for the power of communication. Without communication, we can never understand the background and culture of others. I want to give others this same opportunity.

  

Carolyn Considine (rising 10th grader at Campolindo High School) - I am currently a 10th-grade high school student who believes the world is truly a better, stronger place when people come together in unity. Art and design are an integral part of my family's passion and culture, and hence, I have integrated visually stimulating and culturally significant art as teaching tools for emerging bilingual learners. I want to provide volunteer opportunities to all my peers who share the same goal of enriching the lives of others.

  

Aria Capelli (rising 9th grader at The Athenian School) - I became a volunteer because I know the difficulty of being a student whose first language is not English. Growing up in a bilingual home, I’ve always listened to my mom’s childhood stories about struggling to learn English at a young age. Through Meaningful Teens, I am working to provide young students with the same opportunities in education that my mother and I were fortunate enough to have, so they can better realize their full potential.

Music4America is a nonprofit organization created by a group of high school students from all over the Bay Area. Our projects include tutoring music theory, teaching instrumental skills, volunteering or performing at senior centers and other community areas, hosting fundraising concerts, and our net assets will be donated to those in need. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our members have been creating face masks and face shields to donate to local hospitals and senior centers such as the NORCAL Ambulance in Dublin, Alameda health consortium, Doctor’s Medical Center of Modesto, and much more. Out of the organization, more than 30 members have been actively creating PPEs. They are split into 3 groups, those sewing cloth masks, those 3d printing masks, and those who are creating face shields. Over the course of 2 months, Musis4Amerca has made over 2160 masks and shields for those who are in need, and the numbers are still increasing.

This video shows a few things we’ve done as of now:

For more info, please email m4ainfo@gmail.com

Team Members:

Derek Wang (15y, The College Preparatory School, 10th grade), Joanna Chu (15y, Amador Valley High, 10th grade), Isaac Kim (14y, Dublin High, 9th grade), Yinuo Tang(16y, Amador Valley High School, 11th grade), Alex Tang, 12y, Harvest Park Middle, 7th grade), Maya Lu (13y, Foothill High school, 9th grade), Jessica  Phongsa(16y, Doughty Valley Hight school 11th Grade), Olivia Phongsa (14y, Dougherty Valley High school 9th grade), Serena Zhou (16Y, Amador Valley High School 11th Grade), Ryan Ge 14 Y, California High School), Cecilia Guo (14Y, Foothill High School, 9th grade), Ziqi (Aurora) Geng (16Y，Foothill High School, 11th grade), Victoria Liu(15Y, Amador Valley high, 10th grade), Joy Sun (16Y, DVHS, 11th grade), Joey Sun (13Y, WRMS, 8th grade), Lisa Wang(17Y, VCHS,11th grade), Kevin Wang (14Y, RLS, 9th Grade), Joanne Huang (15y, Dublin High，10th grade), Lucy Tao (14Y, Dublin High, 10th grade), Jiadi Hu (14y, MHS, 9th grade), Nicole Ju (17Y, Amador Valley High school  12th grade), Derek Hu (15y, Amador Valley High school, 11th grade), Brighton Young (16y, AVHS, 12th grade), Justin Zhao (16Y, Amador Valley HS. 11th Grade), Jeffery Lai (17y, foothill, 12th grade), Matthew Yuan (17y, Amador Valley High School, 12th grade), Christine Li (17y, AVHS, 11th grade), Eric Ni (17y, Dublin High，12th), Katie (Jiayun) Zhang (16y, Dougherty Valley High School, 11th grade), Alice Lim (14Y Dublin High 9th grade).

Namaha Youth is a branch of the Namaha Foundation for the Arts, a non-profit organization that aims to use the arts to bring cultures together. The arts have allowed humans to connect with one another, express themselves, and communicate in different ways for years. Each culture has a rich history and art is an essential part of that. The Namaha Youth team works to promote all genres of arts and create a community of different cultures, collaborations, and skills among youth.

Due to the pandemic, all scheduled events are being streamed live on Namaha Foundation’s Facebook page. The Namaha Youth team is involved in projects like Naipunya Dance Festival and Kaleidoscope San Ramon. Naipunya Dance Festival is a monthly solo Indian classical dance event that features upcoming and/or established dancers from any of the 8 Indian classical dance styles. Naipunya Dance Festival was originally held in a traditional temple setting before moving online. Kaleidoscope San Ramon is an initiative that works to organize meaningful events which promote the diversity in our community. Most recently, Winds of Change, a global concert and fundraiser held on August 2nd, 2020, featured artists of various backgrounds with important messages for the world. Kaleidoscope San Ramon was able to surpass its fundraising goal: a part of the proceeds was donated to the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music and the remaining amount was gifted to the artists in the show.

Namaha Youth’s roles and responsibilities include:

• Introducing performers at events (Master of Ceremonies)
• Managing the audio and video technology for online events
• Maintaining Namaha Foundation’s website
• Promoting events on social media
• Coordinating volunteers and communicating with artists

In the future, Namaha Youth plans to introduce events centered around youth and their passion for the arts.

For more information, visit https://www.namahaarts.org/

Namaha Youth Team

Anusha Pai is a senior at Dougherty Valley High School. She has been dancing at the Ushanjali School of Dance for about 10 years and has performed all around the Bay Area. In her spare time, Anusha enjoys reading, vocal/instrumental music, and photography. She has been a part of Namaha for 2 years and is excited to promote the arts.

Rhea Manjunath is a rising junior at California High School. She has been pursuing Bharatanatyam for the past 10 years at Ushanjali School of Dance and has been part of the Namaha Foundation for Arts for 4 years now. She has been recognized with an honorary mention in March 2019 for the SRV Student Recognition Project in the dance category. Other than dance, she loves to sing, read, and hang out with her friends and family!

Sindhoori Kalavacharla is a rising junior at Dougherty Valley High School. She has been dancing for around 12 years and completed her Bharathanatyam Arangetram in 2019. Besides dance, Sindhoori also has a passion for business and social media marketing. She has been a part of Namaha Foundation for 4 years and is excited for all that is to come.

Maya Mankude is an 8th grader at Windemere Ranch Middle School. She is the daughter of Naina Shastri and has been a part of Ushanjali School of Dance since the school started. Maya has also been learning Kathak for the past 5 years. She has been a part of Namaha Foundation for the Arts since its founding.

Ritu Kirsur is a high schooler attending Quarry Lane. She has been dancing for 9 years and has completed the Madyama Purna level of the Akhila Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya classical dance exam. She has been a part of Namaha for around 2 years.

    

We are One Step at a Time, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping elementary and middle school students cope during this time of school closures. By providing them with the assistance they need right now, we ensure that they can be prepared in the fall. With over 50 tutors mentoring students in various subjects from all across the Bay Area, we help our students rise above this pandemic and further their education and enrichment.

One Step at a Time website 
Instagram: @osatforstudents

Team Members:

(L-R) Divyanshi Singh (Dougherty Valley ‘22), Heidi Tam (Dougherty Valley ‘22), Vikram Karmarkar (Dougherty Valley ‘21), Alex Hu (Dougherty Valley ‘22), Aadity Sharma (Dougherty Valley ‘22)

Pens and Paints Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging creativity in local youth. Comprising four sophomores from Foothill High School, our team has provided visual art and writing workshops to elementary and middle schoolers for almost a year. We believe thinking creatively is a fundamental skill. Our team hopes to help youth experience the same passion we do after setting our ideas to ink and paper, especially after sharing them with others. Recently, we’ve opened our Winter Workshops program, in which students from kindergarten to 8th grade can sign up for visual arts and/or writing workshops. The activities are winter-themed, and they are held every other Saturday. To sign up, check out our website here: https://pensandpaints.wixsite.com/pensandpaints

We hope we can spark interest in the arts through our workshops, and we encourage interested students to sign up!

 

Students:

My name is SaiPraharshitha (Sandra) Srinivasan, a sophomore at Foothill High School. I am the Treasurer of Pens and Paints Foundation. As secretary of Hart’s Art Club, I was instrumental in organizing and producing a mural for Valley Humane Society. As part of my Girl Scouts Silver Award Project, I got an opportunity to design creative informational flyers that would help spread the message to the community. I have experience working as a counselor for Camp Freeze at Dublin Iceland. I have competed in multiple Literature and Arts Competitions and won a few medals. Through Pens and Paints, I hope to be able to bring children confidence in expressing their ideas using different mediums.

Samyukta “Sammy” Chittoor is a sophomore at Foothill High, in Pleasanton, and the organization’s Outreach Coordinator. From a young age, she had always admired the arts, both in writing and visually. She has participated in many art contests and competitions, including the Reflections 2016/2018 Visual Arts section, being a finalist in the California State Senate 2013 "Habitat Means Home" Art Contest, etc. . Drawing, painting, and crafting has been a passion of hers for a very long time, and through Pens and Paints Foundation, she hopes to help other kids find and explore their artistic passions.

Annika Gangopadhyay is a sophomore at Foothill High School and the President of Pens and Paints Foundation. Harboring a passion for writing, literature, and entrepreneurship, she has been published in Pleasanton’s Epiphany series for two years and won Teen Ink’s national Editor’s Choice Award for her short story, Sergei Rachmaninoff. She also launched her own chapbook of poetry, The World within Eyes, on Amazon. With a deep passion for helping others cultivate this experience, she is an editor for Foothill Journalism and the global magazine Polyphony Lit. She is also an officer of Foothill Writers’ Group, a critique group designed to promote talented writers and give them valuable feedback.

Arya Krishna is a sophomore at Foothill High School and the secretary of Pens and Paints Foundation. Art has always been a large part of her life, and she hopes to continue spreading joy to other youth in the area through the nonprofit. She has leadership experience from occupying roles including the head of the Ptown Life News team events committee, a member of the admin and communications team for Foothill marching band, and the events coordinator for Interact (a volunteering club). She has also written for Ptown Life Newsletter since 2018 and won awards for her writing through programs such as PTSA Reflections 2018 and 2019 as well as Pleasanton's Epiphany poetry contest in 2019.

 

Project Community Against COVID is an initiative providing assistance to local businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and educating individuals about the pandemic. The initiative was started by Aditya Jain and Prayrak Bajaj, who are both rising sophomores at Dougherty Valley High School.

Our mission is to help flatten the curve of COVID-19 cases and reduce the transmission rates of the coronavirus. We recognized that local businesses can be a point of transmission of the virus, and many businesses are ill-equipped to fight the pandemic. In response to this issue, we donated 250 care packages consisting of reusable masks and gloves to local businesses in an effort to lower the transmission rates at these locations. Here is the link to the GoFundMe page that helped us bear the cost of these care packages.

The San Ramon Valley Community Interact Club is a group of kids ages 12-18 who organize service projects internationally and locally.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the club has sewn and donated more than 400 masks and 300 homemade face shields to the San Mateo Medical Center and Sunol Memory Clinic and fundraised for medical centers. The club also donated bulk amounts of coloring books, crayons, and hand sanitizers to help with patient care and disease prevention.

Past projects:

• Donating over $1,000 and 2,000 supplies through MedShare
• Winter toy drive for the Lucille Packards Children's Hospital culminating in a 400+ toy donation
• Crayon Initiative which donated crayon packages to children's hospitals
• Donation fundraiser to support human rights issues in Venezuela
• Fundraiser for the Rotary Club of Sint Maarten-Mid Isle to help support a shelter for women and children who have experienced domestic violence

For more information, visit https://www.srvcinteract.org/

Members:

Joanna Ho (California High School Grade 11), Samhita Nagubandi (Monte Vista High School Grade 12), Aahan Patel (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 9), Abhipri Chowdhury (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 12), Akash Ponna (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 12), Akilesh Kale (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 10), Anika Kumar (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 12), Anika Sharma (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 12), Anu Tirumala (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 10), Anushree Banerjee (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 12), Anvi Padakanti (Windermere Ranch Middle School Grade 7), Aryan Patel (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 12), Avani Gireesha (Venture High Grade 11), Devery Parkins (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 9), Dipika Chopra (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 12), Esther Wang (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 12), Esha Chakraborty (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 12), Gabriela Felix Domeni De Goes (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 12), Shiva Katragadda (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 10), Julianna Ho (California High School Grade 11), Juhi Sehgal (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 10), Kushal Tirupathi (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 12), Manas Tummala (Monte Vista High School), Meha Banga (California High School Grade 9), Minahil Afzal (California High School Grade 9), Pragnya Kunamneni (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 11), Rajarshi Tummala ( Monte Vista High School Grade 11), Rheeya Chakraborty (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 10), Sachi Patel (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 10), Sanya Mittal (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 10), Rithika Chalamcharla (Winderemere Middle School Grade 7), Shardul Dhongade (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 12), Shikha Pogalur (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 9), Sohan Emani (Winderemere Middle School Grade 7), Sophie Luu (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 11), Sreshta Talluri (Dougherty Valley High School Grade 12), Viraj Shivadevuni ( Dougherty Valley High School Grade 10).

The new coronavirus has forced schools around the world to close their doors, and many young, aspiring students have had their education halted as a result. San Ramon Virtual Tutors is a volunteer-based, non-profit organization run by a team of high achieving DVHS students who want to help other students achieve their academic dreams.

The organization aims to aid the San Ramon community during this time by providing free, high-quality, and personalized tutoring via virtual means (google meet or zoom.us) to young students entering high school or currently in middle/elementary school in a variety of subjects including Math, Science, AP/Reg. Biology, Honors/Reg. Chemistry, English, History, and Coding (Python).

Furthermore, this organization has partnered with ezedutunity.com, a company that connects opportunity providers (OP's) with high school students looking for volunteering opportunities in order to provide a means for other high-achieving high school students to give back to their community. From this, we have gathered a variety of students willing to tutor from across the Bay Area.

San Ramon Virtual Tutor’s website can be accessed here.

 

SRVT Team

Viraj Verma is an incoming junior at DVHS who has just taken AP Biology and AP World History, achieving a 5 on both AP Exams. He is a Co-founder, President, and Head of Public Outreach at San Ramon Virtual Tutors. He has been tutoring/volunteering consistently in different organizations and clubs since freshman year, including San Ramon Science Alliance, DVHS Connect Ed, CSF, and has volunteered at Senior Homes where he participated in educating seniors on how to use their electronic devices. In regards to tutoring, Viraj primarily focuses on Science-based subjects, including Chemistry and Biology and hopes to continue tutoring in these subjects and one day pursue a career in Molecular Biology.

Richard James is an incoming junior at DVHS. He is a Co-founder and the Vice President of San Ramon Virtual Tutors. He excels at standardized testing and has experience grading for an international tutoring organization, but prefers teaching over grading. He hopes to do cutting-edge work in genetic engineering or AI, and has a passion for science.

Harsh Dadhich is an incoming junior and a developer experimenting with Python modules, Rust, and back-end web design. He wishes to go into CS and artificial intelligence development. He is enrolled in multiple Advanced Placement classes. He has also tutored at OSAT and lead marketing/logistics in ACEVL.

Vrushank Prakash is an incoming junior at DVHS. He is also a Co-founder and Head of Marketing at San Ramon Virtual Tutors. He is focused on problem-solving in math and technology, having developed a Discord bot for the popular game Valorant called Veloxis. He has also received straight A's in every math class he has taken through AP Calculus AB. He has also participated in math competitions, such as Mathcounts and AMC, since 7th grade. He hopes to share his knowledge through tutoring others in a wide multitude of subjects.

Manikandan Ravi is an incoming junior at DVHS. He is also a Co-founder and Co-Head of Communications at San Ramon Virtual Tutors. He is a bright student who was accepted in a dual-enrollment program called College Connect that allows him to take classes at DVC alongside the high school curriculum. He has been participated and volunteered consistently since Freshman year, at places like the Lawrence Hall of Science, CSF, and was a part of DECA.

Dhruv Suresh is an incoming sophomore at DVHS. He is also a Co-founder and Co-Head of Communication at San Ramon Virtual Tutors. Dhruv is a student who has a strong motivation to do well in academics, and desires to share his knowledge with others through classes and tutoring. He has tutored math to students before at various other organizations prior to this.

Deepak Ananthkrishnan is a rising junior who just finished taking Honors Physics, Honors Precalculus, AP European History, and has previously taken Honors Chemistry at DVHS. He is someone who has previous experience teaching Tae Kwon Do classes for over 100 combined hours and volunteering with organizations such as CSF and Red Cross. He aspires to acquire a job in the computer science field and loves messing around with technology as a hobby.

Hello! We five are a group of rising juniors from The Quarry Lane School who have started a youth-led nonprofit called SHE: Sustainable, Heard, Empowered. We strive to empower women in rural areas by providing them with hygienic, sanitary products.

Disposable pads contain dioxins which are formed in the process of bleaching used pads. As a result, these dioxins end up in the bloodstream of a woman. Also, disposable pads are harmful to the environment. Billions of trees are cut down yearly to manufacture them. A single disposable pad has the equivalent of four plastic bags, which means an equivalent minimum of 40,000-60,000 plastic bags are discarded per woman throughout her entire menstrual cycle.

That is why we at SHE started promoting reusable pads. During these unprecedented times, we are doing the best we can to help those who are not as privileged as us. Currently, we are packing sanitary packages for homeless women which consist of 1-2 reusable pads, hand sanitizers, handmade masks and dental care kits. These will be delivered monthly.

Along with this, we are selling hand sanitizers to the general public. The funds we get will go towards sanitary products for homeless women, and other initiatives taken under our cause. If you would like to order hand sanitizers, please use the link attached below.

We are also open to new youth ambassadors! Click here to apply 

Much love, 
Team SHE

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heard.empowered/ 
Website: https://heardempowered.wixsite.com/she-ngo (recommended to view on desktop)

Tejasvi Hariharan: Founder/Executive Director

Amandeep Kaur Dhaliwal: Project Director

Anjali Kalidindi: Marketing/Sales Director

Srusti Acharya: Co-Finance/Sales Director

Insha Kurji: Co-Finance/Sales Director

Team 4C - Foresee is a group of 22 high school, middle school, and elementary school kids who want to make a difference in their community. “4C” stands for Children’s Convergence for Community Causes, and “Foresee” symbolizes how they find any need in the community early on and help out. Team 4C’s mission is to bring kids together to take up causes that benefit the community around us, which promotes the value of giving back to the community from a very young age.

During this COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an immediate need of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for frontline and essential workers, but not enough availability. Team 4C has stepped up to make homemade face shields from easily available materials since April 2020. They have been donating them to various organizations that need face shields to help slow or stop the spread of the coronavirus. The team has sent them to various places both close by, such as San Ramon and other local cities, and also far away, such as New Jersey. The face shields made by Team 4C are used in schools, hospitals, dental offices, senior care centers, churches, and various other places. The team has helped many organizations and continues to make and donate face shields to this day. So far, Team 4C has donated close to 2,000 face shields.

Team 4C’s members:

High School: Shashank Subramanya (DVHS), Shishir Subramanya (DVHS), Shyam Bhegade (CHS), Aakash Bhegade (graduated from CHS), Rhea Manjunath (CHS), Aarav Manjunath (CHS), Shripad Akumalla (DVHS), Adam Mohib (CHS), Raghava Madireddy (DVHS), Sanjita Maram (DVHS), Krish Bala (DVHS), Abhinithi Janardhanan (DHS), Sammy Chittoor (FHS)

Middle School: Siddharth Madireddy (GRMS), Bhavana Maram (GRMS), Akshara Janardhanan (CCS), Adit Gupta (GRMS), Tanay Chittoor (HMS)

Elementary School: Sahasra Akumalla (QRES), Aleesa Mohib (MVES), Ishanvi Bala (HHES), Anya Gupta (QRES)

To learn more about Team 4C, you can visit https://www.facebook.com/team4cforesee

Email: team4cforesee@gmail.com

GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-team-4c-fight-the-pandemic

Reha Matai and Aashika Duvoor, Juniors in high school, co-founded QuaranTEEN Academy to give back to their community during these unprecedented times. Organized and led by teens, QuaarnTEEN Academy’s mission is to provide elementary school students with an academically and socially enriching experience by teaching creative curriculum to those whose education was impacted by Covid-19. Through hiring qualified teachers, planning an engaging curriculum, and providing opportunities to bond with peers, QuaranTEEN Academy goes above and beyond in five subject areas to provide motivated students with an unforgettable experience.

This past summer, QuaranTEEN held its summer sessions open to all elementary school students, especially encouraging people from underrepresented communities to enroll. QuaranTEEN Academy has taught math, science, Spanish, expressive writing and chess to more than 40 students across California. Quarterly, they open volunteer opportunities for high school students to gain leadership experience and share their love for education with younger children. QuaranTEEN Academy also has future plans to invite guest speakers in various fields to help students discover their passions.

Through QuaranTEEN Academy’s summer session, Reha and Aashika raised over $300 which will be donated to local hospitals in the Bay Area. They plan to continue raising money to support the many lives affected by COVID-19.

The executive board at QuaranTEEN Academy includes Aashika and Reha (Co-Founders), Subrina (Director of Outreach), Adithya (Director of Education) and Diego (Director of Finance).

“Despite these difficult times, we should continue to make positive impacts in our community, no matter how small. The smallest actions in life can have the biggest impacts.”

My name is Anwita Chaudhry, I am an incoming freshman at Dougherty Valley High School. My hobbies include writing, choreographing, and acting.

The current pandemic has caused many issues for various groups of people, one of these groups being teenagers as we feel cut off from our friends. We also face big let downs as graduations, field trips, sports seasons, college visits and other long-planned events are cancelled or postponed. This is why I created DesiHeart. With the mission to provide a safe, healthy, productive, and engaging place for students to interact with each other in an attempt to create a new normal in these difficult times amidst the Coronavirus.

We do this by engaging in a common goal, to spread love and appreciation for Indian culture throughout the community through various art forms including dance, theater, cooking, crafting, singing, writing, story-telling, and much more while having fun and making good memories. We welcome all level performers and artists from all ethnicities to display and develop their talents. Students will get a chance to learn from each other. We meet virtually throughout the school year and summer for events, parties, workshops, and meetings.

For more information on this initiative visit DesiHeart.org

My name is Alexander Chen, and I am a recent graduate of Foothill High School in Pleasanton and a rising freshman at Harvard University. Having always been interested in exploring the intersection between public policy and healthcare and recognizing how the COVID-19 pandemic has only made navigating the healthcare system even more confusing than it already is, I've launched a student-run initiative called Bills Made Clear to help regular citizens decipher their medical bills in this unprecedented time.

An online informational webinar is planned for August 8 from 2-4 p.m. PST and will feature a panel of experts in the field of patient advocacy. I am also developing a comprehensive guide to understanding medical billing during COVID-19 as part of my project and hope to make it accessible in multiple languages and throughout the state.

For more information about Bills Made Clear and to RSVP for the webinar, visit billsmadeclear.org.

Esha and Arya Cyril are twin siblings in their junior year attending The Quarry Lane School in Dublin. Amidst these difficult times with COVID-19, they wanted to help the community through meaningful initiatives.

Esha and Arya have consulted with health professionals that are experts in Western and Ayurveda medicine to develop wellness tips to stay healthy. They have sent information to the City and Government Offices for Public Health. They are active youth advocates for the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University, a nonprofit organization that works to advocate health policies and raise awareness towards Liver related diseases. They have designed a Jade color face mask to help support the cause. Esha and Arya are virtually involved with Rare Diseases Legislative Advocates (RDLA) which makes an impact on federal policy changes towards rare diseases.

Both Esha and Arya have decided to launch their long-time passion of starting a nonprofit organization that aims to remove education barriers in underprivileged communities across the world by connecting students through language, experience involving guest speakers speaking on current topics. “Although these times are full of uncertainty, we strive to make a positive change in any way we can. We also encourage our peers to take part in any action as every little thing counts."

Arya & Esha Cyril are among the top finalists (Youth Category) for Rare Voice Awards from RDLA (Rare Diseases Legislative Advocates). This virtual event will be held on December 10th at 7.00 Pm E.T. Please join us as we celebrate advocates who give rare disease patients a voice on Capitol Hill and in State Government. The event is free and open to the public. RDLA believes that every voice matters and that patients are the key to changing public policy. RDLA are disease advocates who make their voices heard year-round and continue to advance policies that benefit the rare disease community.

Please use the link below to register and vote.

https://rareadvocates.org/rarevoice-awards

My name is Amandip Dutta, and I am currently a sophomore attending Dougherty Valley High School. I enjoy doing math, playing soccer, and running. I am also a Boy Scout and participate in helping the community through volunteering. I started volunteering in elementary school by taking part in community events along with family. I soon learned that volunteering not only helps people, but it also makes me feel happy as well.

At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, there was a shortage of personal protective equipment. My family and I decided to create cloth masks to help people in the community. We made hundreds of masks and donated them to the John Muir Health Foundation. We also were part of a big mask-making drive through a non-profit organization Agomoni to create masks for donation. My sister and I also helped to make the mask making process easier by creating a YouTube video with detailed instruction for others to follow.

During the pandemic there were volunteer shortages at the Food Bank, Through Boy Scouts, I also volunteered on multiple shifts spanning multiple days to pack produce at the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano.

Sudharsan Gopalakrishnan is a sophomore attending “The Quarry Lane School” in Dublin, California. He was recently awarded the 4-H Golden Clover Award for his Virtual Coding Project which he ran since May 2020 via virtual classes spreading STEM education to other 4-H Youth Members and peer educators across counties. He will be recognized in the State Leadership Conference and at a local county event organized by 4-H council. The Golden Clover Award recognize outstanding achievements of members, volunteers, program staff, and groups within the 4-H Youth Development Program. This is awarded for the outstanding educational events or activities that involve youth-adult partnerships in planning and delivery, reach a wide array of youth, and strive to meet local needs.

With the stay-at-home order enacted in California, Sudharsan devoted much of his free time to promote STEM workshops for 4-H youth members across counties. With the list of schools canceling classes indefinitely is growing, and day-to-day life has been disrupted like never – all because of increased social distancing measures to stop the spread of COVID-19, he facilitated STEM workshops and virtual coding classes to encourage and engage youth members and to bridge the gap in computing and technology which he is always passion about.

The young teen educator helped many youth members and adult educators with everything including curriculum designing based on age, interest, and proficiency levels, setting up classes, managing signups, sending out reminders and hosting the class as an educator. Inspired by the strong sense of service instilled in him by his parents, Sudharsan Gopalakrishnan gives back to the community via STEM workshops.

When asked why he chose to volunteer to spread STEM?

He replied: As a volunteer, I have learned so much about the way a community functions and how much there is to learn from every single member of a community. I have learned how to not only initiate mutually beneficially friendships, but how to also foster those relationships. I went into the volunteering experience thinking I would be sharing my skills and teaching young students and other peer educators about STEM concepts, but little did I know, I would be learning just as much from them.

I also learned a really important life lesson and that is that no matter how tough you think your life is there’s always someone who has to face challenges that are even tougher than yours. After interacting with a diverse group of young students across counties with a variety of backgrounds, I realized how blessed I was and how grateful I should be for everything I had. As a volunteer, I began to appreciate the little opportunities I had received in life and this truly changed my mindset.

I also acquired many very important interpersonal and communication skills with making connections, putting my book-based skills to the test and applying everything I had learned thus far.

I also learned the importance of taking initiatives and truly striving to make a difference about something that you are passionate about. In fact, before I started my workshop program, many people had told me that it was highly unrealistic to organize at such a young age, but with support from my family, and mentors, I was able to and continue to achieve my goals.

I believe that the most important reason to give back is based on a sense of self-satisfaction and the pleasure you get from your efforts. Sudharsan added opportunity to him means “Educating the community”.

My name is Tony He, I am an incoming junior at California High School and I love making positive impacts on my community.

During the pandemic, I noticed that many people have lost their jobs. Since they lost their jobs, their money is probably very tight and knowing how to effectively manage their money can be very crucial. This is why my friends and I founded a financial literacy club. Our club’s purpose is to teach low income students to make wise financial decisions since educating teens early about financial literacy can help them accomplish more goals and live more comfortably. Currently, our club has 10 members planning and teaching lessons for low income students.

Other than making a financial literacy club, I tutored many new immigrant kids on their math, reading and speech for free. I also taught many kids to play Rubik’s cube and spent all the class fees ($240) buying PPE to donate to Kaiser and St. Anthony’s church. Furthermore, I made thank you cards, face shields for health care workers and recorded positive messages for sick COVID patients to fight the pandemic.

I believe that spreading positivity and doing good things to my community is very important since during this unexpected time, it is very easy for us to feel upset and negative. If we work together and spread positivity everywhere we go, we will conquer any obstacle that’s in our way.

Amelia John, incoming senior at San Ramon Valley High School in Danville, CA.

“As we shelter-in-place in our homes, I have been thinking about kids who have been removed from their home, due to family violence or trauma. Youth Homes is a group home close to where I live. I wanted to find a way to reach out and support them during this difficult and unsettling time. I bring my love of art and creativity to 16 foster kids each week. I hope to help them feel supported, inspired and cared for. Kindness is a gift that anyone can give. I have been creating and packaging art projects for kids in foster care; I also host instructional Zoom meetings each Wednesday. Check out my blog to see our weekly projects!

“I am so beyond grateful to have been featured on the Youth Homes Blog! Click here to read our story."

My name is Natasha Koneru, and I am a rising senior at Dougherty Valley High School. I founded Talks for Teens, an initiative designed to allow youths to gain valuable information about diverse topics including college admissions and mental health, as they relate to COVID-19. The objective of Talks for Teens to disseminate relevant information while ensuring teenagers feel supported during the pandemic. 

Talks for Teens has hosted a talk with a college counselor, allowing teenagers access to information about how changing admission requirements due to COVID-19 will affect them and providing a place for them to seek answers to relevant questions. I wanted to support other groups who are struggling as a result of COVID-19, so my first talk doubled as a fundraiser for domestic violence shelters in the Bay Area. Thanks to everyone who donated, we raised over $500 for SAVE and Narika, two local domestic violence shelters.

In the future, I plan on hosting talks about careers in STEM, personal finance, and teen activism, and other topics.

If you would like more information about Talks for Teens, follow @talks4teens on Instagram.

My name is Kanchan Krishna, and I am a 12th grader attending Quarry Lane School.

I am the founder and director of the San Ramon City Coding Club. My goal is to broaden my outreach to teaching children of different backgrounds how to code, regardless of their identities. I want to create a more diverse community in the field of technology, so my main objective is to involve international students in my coding club, in order to help domestic and international students better assimilate with each other to promote diversity and inclusion. Every Wednesday, I teach children from different schools how to code the apps that I have created in the past with hopes of giving them the skills needed to create their own innovations!

Sahana Nellian is a junior at the Quarry Lane School with a keen interest in liberal arts, education justice, and giving back to her community. In order to address the need for younger students to be informed and politically active citizens, she co-founded and is the co-president of the organization Rhapsody for Youth (RFY).

As of August 2020, the organization has taught more than 120 students within the Tri-Valley Area essential skills about public speaking, leadership, and advocacy. RFY has also held many seminars with a diverse set of participants to discuss issues considered controversial in the current volatile political climate. Additionally, the organization has held competitions for the youth and offers volunteering opportunities to provide the youth of the community with a platform to advocate. RFY plans to also release a website in late September that breaks down politics for children.

The core team at RFY which drives every success is Caroline Gong (Co-founder and Co-President), Tony Wang (VP of Operations), Manasa Raghavan (VP of Communications), Vivian Chang (VP of Media), Suvan Shangle (VP of Volunteering), and Sophia Zhu (VP of Graphic Design). To learn more about the organization or sign up for online events, click here.

In addition to Rhapsody for Youth, Sahana was one of 30 youth changemakers in the nation selected to join an organization called Civics Unplugged, which aims to build a better democracy by 2030. She hopes that in the coming years she will be able to make a positive impact on the youth as well as those less privileged than her.

Hello, my name is Suraj Pangal and I am a rising sophomore at Monte Vista High School.In light of the recent COVID19 pandemic, my sister, Anjani Pangal, and I started a self-isolation pledge signature campaign dedicated to preventing the spread of the virus and flattening the curve.

Our main objective is to create a ripple effect, where people not only pledge to stay inside their homes and limit their contact with others, but also encourage their friends to do so as well. This way, we can come together to create a larger impact and flatten the curve, reducing our burden on the healthcare system and workers that are putting everything on the line to protect our community.

Through this initiative, we have reached hundreds of people and even gained the support of San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Ronald Blair. We hope to reach many more to effectively combat the virus until the threat to public health is completely eliminated.

Self Isolation Pledge Website

Watch the video of support from Ronald Blair below, or click here to view on YouTube.

Hi! My name is Jyothikaa Ramann, a rising junior at Dougherty Valley High School. From a young age, I have always been attracted to the idea of helping people. Hospitals, hospices, and senior homes; wherever I go, I am always attracted to making a difference in lives. I have dived deeper with a passion for service. My empathy and dedication for service has only grown, and I saw firsthand how service can change a person and impact any ordinary person to flourish into so much more and make a difference of their own. From interacting with patients and showing empathy and compassion to people in need, I give to make a true difference in all lives, from hospitals to clinics to aid in catastrophes across the Bay Area.

Amidst the COVID-19 crisis, I have realized even though I am not physically present, I will continue to make an impact, helping patients and my role models, our healthcare heroes to fight.

During these times I have:

• Donated my full proceeds of my tutoring lessons from academics, violin lessons and from other jobs to Stanford Valley Care, who resonate my goals and passion of service towards health care.
• Implemented upon my invention, The Posture Genie, a medical assistant device to serve as a telehealth asset during these trying times as we move into Virtual Primary Care.
• Created an application/interactive platform to innovate and improve computational diagnostic measures; the AI ChatBot Symptom Checker helps patients to diagnose themselves virtually with accuracy and efficiency
• Used CNNs to create a COVID-19 lung CT scan neural network image classifier

I will continue to donate and stand beside them through this crisis and into the future. Being an aspiring doctor, I will NEVER STOP my service and dedication to medicine and to the people, because one day I'll be someone's hope and someone's HERO.

My name is Naina Sabbineni. I am a rising junior at Dougherty Valley High School and am the President of the California chapter of the Miracle for Youth organization, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in March 2020 that is dedicated to filling the gaps of education by providing free online tutoring and educational help.

Early in this unprecedented public health crisis the shortage of protective gear for healthcare workers concerned me. I was able to reach out to many local construction and woodworking companies for donations of N95 masks which I was then able to provide to the hospital and nursing homes in the area.

As COVID-19 required schools to shift to online learning, we realized that students are not getting the necessary learning experience at home, and we wished to supplement that by offering a free tutoring service. The goal of Miracle for Youth is to help support under-funded elementary school students by having our volunteers offer free tutoring services through an online video conferencing platform. Our service also includes free mini-lectures and curriculum courses for elementary students that are carefully drafted based on school curriculums in collaboration with local teachers and private academies.

I am grateful to my team including Charlotte Zhang (Westridge ’22), Aditii Srinivasan (Dougherty Valley ’22), Evalyn Wong (Dougherty Valley ’22), and Emily Wong (Dougherty Valley ’24).

For more information about Miracle for Youth, please see www.miracleyouth.org.

Apara Sai Jella is a rising Junior at California High School, San Ramon. She has founded Smilecard.org along with her sister Ghrini Sai Jella, a rising 5th grader at Hidden Hills Elementary School, San Ramon.

Over the last several years, Apara Sai has being volunteering and interacting with the seniors at the shelters. She had also shadowed doctors and interacted with the seniors at the hospitals during her recent winter break. She got connected to the joy of the seniors when she and others visited them. The simple act of spending a little bit of time talking and laughing made their day more enjoyable.

Apara Sai with her sisters Ghrini Sai and Tulaja Sai made more than 250 cards and canvas paintings to bring smiles to seniors at Brookdale Senior Living. They also sent the digital version of cards to several senior communities throughout the country, who were very excited to receive them.

Seeing the need for digital cards, Smilecard.org was visualized in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. With the stay at home, and shelter in place orders all over the nation, the visitors to the senior centers and hospitals have been limited causing loneliness and isolation of seniors.

To help ease the situation and cheer up the lonely, Smilecard.org came alive with the mission to bring a smile to everyone through the power of expression in the form of cards, letters, poems, and any other form of art. As of now over 150 senior communities have benefited from these cards. These communities will be sharing the cards on a regular basis to give them to the seniors in order to bring a smile on their faces.

Thanks to several individuals, who have already contributed to Smilecard, the gallery is growing.

Together, let us bring smile, one card at a time! The digital artwork sent to Smilecard will be added to the gallery on the website, which can then be downloaded and shared by the senior shelters and hospitals directly and handed over to the residents and/or patients.

Learn more and join Smilecard here

My name is Gatik Trivedi and I’m an incoming 9th grader at Dougherty Valley High School. I enjoy spending time with my family, reading about biological innovations, playing basketball, and of course lots of video games. I represented my middle school as an ambassador in San Ramon’s Teen council. I worked with SRVUSD and San Ramon Council members to set up city-wide initiatives to help address mental health issues and special needs programs.

I recently won the first prize in Contra Costa Science Fair and also awarded “The Lemelson Early Inventor Prize”. I created a low-cost non-invasive glucose meter because currently, there is no cost-effective and non-invasive way to measure glucose levels at home. My goal is to make this affordable product widely accessible to all communities.

During this pandemic, I am doing my part by steering my research in the biotechnology area and finding new ways to develop cost-effective solutions to help our community.

I believe in 3 things which are: be kind, be respectful not only to others but to yourself, and give your best in anything you do. I look forward to serving our community with the best of my ability and making our community more resilient as we work together to life as our new normal.

Anvi Vasa is an incoming sophomore who is passionate about helping her community during the global pandemic. She used her creativity and crafting skills to give back to her community throughout these difficult times.

Anvi was inspired to donate masks to her community members when she saw her neighbors walking around her community without a mask. Some took to the extreme of covering their mouth with a napkin or the back of their hand because they simply did not know where to find affordable and readily available masks. She realized that it may be hard for seniors as well as low income families to find masks for their entire families in the panic buying environment throughout stores today. After diligently trying many different face mask patterns, she decided to develop a mask design of her own that is both effective and up to the CDC standard. She made four different designs that fit the needs of men, women, teens and young kids.

Throughout the spring and summer months, Anvi has made and donated almost 30 masks to her neighbors in the tri-valley area for free. Each mask is colorful and handmade, in hopes that she could help flatten the COVID-19 curve one mask at a time.

For more information and to order a mask, you can visit www.freemasks.weebly.com.