BUILD India Program Members

 

BUILD: India 2016-17

Janani Baskaran, Class of 2019

Hometown: Acton, MA
Major(s): Biomedical Engineering
Exeperience with BUILD: Janani has been in BUILD: India for two years and through her time at BUILD: India, she has organized many fundraisers and learned the important factors of sustainable development. She also writes blog posts for the organization's social media account and took part in the Winter 2017 trip to Thottiyapatti.

Jacob Cantor, Class of 2019

Hometown: West Hartford, CT
Major(s): International Relations and Political Science
Exeperience with BUILD: Jacob joined BUILD: India three semesters ago due to his interest in sustainable development. He recently travelled to India with the organization on the Winter 2017 trip.

Kristina Chu, Class of 2019

Hometown: East Setauket, NY
Major(s): Environmental Engineering and Community Health
Exeperience with BUILD: Kristina has been a member of BUILD: India for a year and a half. She went on the Summer 2016 trip and also led the Winter 2017 trip. Kristina loves BUILD: India because of its focus on sustainable development, and for the opportunity to collaborate with a non-profit organization that aims to improve the health and education of the local community.

Srinitha Dasari, Class of 2018

Hometown: Arcadia, CA; Hyderabad, India
Major(s): Political Science and Community Health
Exeperience with BUILD: Srinitha has both taken part in the Summer 2015 trip to Thottiyapatti and more recently led the Winter 2016 trip. Her experiences in BUILD: India have not onlly helped her learn about sustainable development, but have helped her understand "community" in a new light.

Siddharth Divakaruni, Class of 2019

Hometown: Munster, IN
Major(s): International Relations
Exeperience with BUILD: Sidd has been a member of BUILD: India since his freshman year. He went on the Summer 2016 trip where he worked with NGO personnel to gather health data and establish a series of educational field trips. He most recently led the Winter 2017 trip focusing on low-cost community organization initiatives with regards to extant infrastructure.

Abi Gowda, Class of 2019

Hometown: Westwood, MA
Major(s): Applied Math and Biology
Exeperience with BUILD: Abi is a new member to BUILD: India this year. He has helped with coordinating and reaching out to the community for fundraiser initiatives.

Vivian Hong, Class of 2019

Hometown: Wilton, CT
Major(s): Computer Science and Cognitive Brain Science
Exeperience with BUILD: Vivian joined BUILD: India in her freshman year because of her interest in sustainable development and southern India. Throughout her time in the organization thus far, in addition to the Winter trip 2017, she has helped with fundraising, planning/implementing projects, grant writing, interviewing, and event planning. She is very grateful for all the amazing and dedicated people she has met in BUILD: India, the experiences she's had with them, and the things she has learned from them.

Paulina Jedrzejowski, Class of 2019

Hometown: New York, NY
Major(s): Quantitative Economics and Portugese
Exeperience with BUILD: Paulina is a new member in BUILD: India. She has helped BUILD: India during two fall semester fundraisers. Paulina finds the organization's work interesting because of its focus on community involvement in projects and not on the imposition of Western thought on other communities. Paulina will travel to Thottiyapatti community as a part of the Summer 2017 trip.

Megha Nayar, Class of 2019

Hometown: Scarsdale, NY
Major(s): Quantitative Economics
Exeperience with BUILD: Megha joined BUILD: India during her freshman year and was a Summer 2016 trip team member. As a result, she will be leading the upcoming Summer 2017 trip. From her experience in the organization, she has learned leadership, creativity, teamwork, and the difficulties/rewards of sustainable development work.

Meghana Nemali, Class of 2020

Hometown: New York, NY
Major(s): Undecided
Exeperience with BUILD: Meghana joined BUILD: India this year due to her interest in health, education, and sustainability.

Marie-Louise Schnetz, Class of 2019

Hometown: Munich, Germany
Major(s): Mechanical Engineering
Exeperience with BUILD: Marie joined BUILD: India due to her pre-college involvement with service projects in Myanmar and Tanzania. She has so far worked as part of the education committee and led important on-camps fundraising events. She is currently looking forward to working more closely with the Thottiyapatti community on the Summer 2017 trip.

Ian Seerung, Class of 2020

Hometown: Clifton Park, NY
Major(s): International Relations
Exeperience with BUILD: Ian is a new member of BUILD: India this year and joined due to his desire to learn more about sustainable development. He has helped to organize and coordinate fundraising events throughout this year.

Bhavna Sivasubramanian, Class of 2017

Hometown: Wayland, MA
Major(s): International Relations and Economics
Exeperience with BUILD: Bhavna joined BUILD: India during her freshman year and has participated in the Winter 2015 trip team as a member and the Summer 2015 trip team as a leader. Bhavna has also served as BUILD's Chief Financial Officer responsible for managing BUILD's funds and ensuring long-term financial viability. As an individual passionate in the area of international development, she plans to pursue this field when she graduates this Spring.

Sacha Thompson, Class of 2020

Hometown: London, UK
Major(s): International Relations and Economics
Exeperience with BUILD: Sacha is a new member of BUILD: India this year. She joined due to her prior experience with International Development in the Dominican Republic and interest in current development practices used in India. As the Multimedia Coordinator for BUILD: India, Sacha is working at increasing the organization's online presence in order to create awareness of the group's work.

Visnavy Vickneswaran, Class of 2020

Hometown: Medford, MA
Major(s): Undecided
Exeperience with BUILD: This is Visnavy's first year in BUILD: India, and she is very excited to help and learn more about the people in Thottiyapatti. She will be partaking in the Summer 201 trip to India.