In my freshman year of high school, I went on a trip to my grandparents’ house in Cambay, India, where I visited an under-resourced school along with my family. When I saw the situation in this school, I knew they had to help change it. The students were sitting on the floor, with no supplies other than a pencil and paper, and learning from a teacher who was only using chalk and a chalkboard. Seeing these conditions, I wanted to talk to the students to learn more about them. I found the ambitions of the students to be extremely inspiring, with most of them having enormous aspirations, such as becoming doctors, lawyers, and astronauts.

It was very apparent that in the conditions these students were learning in, they weren’t getting the support they needed to further their academic aspirations. During that same trip, I worked with a local rotary club to donate bags of school supplies such as pencils, chalkboards, notebooks, erasers, pens, etc for each student to enjoy, and to hopefully help and inspire them to continue to pursue their dreams.

After seeing how grateful these students were when given school supplies, I knew that helping these underprivileged students was my calling, so I founded my own non-profit organization called “For the Students, by the Students” where we spread awareness about students living in poverty, and collect school supplies to help them achieve their dreams.

The Kids in Need Foundation’s mission seems to parallel the mission of For the Students, by the Students, which is one that is very close to me. I believe that becoming an ambassador for Kids In Need will allow me to reach out to a greater number of schools, will allow me to help out more under-resourced students, and support them in reaching their aspirations.