In its ninth year, IACPA’s program attracted applications from over120 Indian-American college students from across U.S.

INTERNING WITH REPRESENTATIVES

Rajen Desai, son of Uday and Smita Desai from Fort Worth, Texas, was a cadet squadron commander and is a certified solo pilot in the United States Air Force Auxiliary.

As a President’s Scholar and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, he completed an honors thesis in neurobiology (soon to be published) on how new axons grown in the brain during childhood learning are not erased when the child forgets, but are maintained throughout adulthood. Further, he completed a second senior thesis in medical anthropology focusing on how to educate unlicensed doctors who practice illegally in the slums of India. Outside of research, Desai won top university leadership awards as co-president of Sanskriti, the 500-member Stanford South Asian society, where he focused on building Hindu-Muslim unity. He was also nationally recognized by the United States Department of Health and Human Services for his leadership in the South Asian Preventive Health Outreach Program.

This summer, Desai interned with Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA). This fall, he will return to Palo Alto, Calif., to begin the M.D. program at Stanford Medical School, as well as an M.A. in International Policy Studies. His long-term plans are to focus on how religious movements in South Asia can ameliorate regional public health concerns and India-Pakistan relations.

Sanchay Krishna is a student at the University of Delaware, where he majors in Business Administration with an emphasis on Marketing and Management.

His parents, Rajeev and Bindu Krishna, and his brother Sumit and sister Rati Priya, live in Middlesex, New Jersey.

Krishna interned with the Congressman from his home state, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ). Rep. Pallone was one of the founders and also the first Democratic co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans. Rep. Pallone has hosted interns from IACPA’s WLP since the first year of the program.

At the University of Delaware, Krishna actively participates in inter-mural tennis, student government (DUSC), and a marketing club called AMA. Last summer, he worked with the Governor of New Jersey, helping to set up an Indian festival at the governor’s mansion.

Krishna has also actively participated with the Indian Chambers of Commerce in New Jersey, where he helped to set up fund-raisers for Indian Americans running for political office.

His hobbies include bike riding, basketball, tennis, building model cars and playing the piano.

Tanushree Srinivasan will be entering her third year at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she is pursuing concentrations in both Finance and Management besides a minor in Romance Language Studies. Her family lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, and she interned with the Congressman from her home state, Jim Cooper (D-TN).

While in high school, she interned in the office of former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson, who retired from the Senate after the 2002 elections to return to his acting career and become the district attorney on ‘Law and Order.’ Also while still in high school, Srinivasan was a state finalist in the Tennessee Youth Senate Competition. She graduated in 2001 as valedictorian of Faragut High School in Knoxville, Tenn. While in high school, Srinivasan served as state treasurer and regional governor of Mu Alpha Theta, won numerous state public speaking awards through the 4-H Club, served on the student council for four years, played both western and Indian classical flute, and trained in Bharatnatyam and Classical South Indian Carnatic Music.

At the University of Pennsylvania, Srinivasan continued to pursue South Asian activities. As a member of PenNaatak, UPenn’s South Asian Theatre Troupe, she not only starred in leading roles of two of the organization’s productions, she also served on its executive board for two years. Srinivasan has held leadership positions in Sangam, a South Asian political organization, and the University of Pennsylvania Model United Nations Team.

Sundeep Sood, of Peachtree City, Ga., will be a third-year student at the University of Georgia, where he majors in Economics and Political Science. This summer, he interned with his home state representative, Congresswoman Denise Majette (D-GA).

Sood is currently an active member in the University of Georgia’s Student Government Association and was recently appointed to co-chair the Minority Affairs Committee. One of his main goals in the committee is to help foster understanding and awareness within the student body. He volunteers on a regular basis at the local Boys & Girls Club in Athens, Georgia, and participates in University Judiciary and the High School Outreach Team.

One of Sood’s favorite hobbies is playing golf, especially with his father.

His future aspirations include becoming a teacher for Teach for America and then joining the Peace Corps.

Tara Kolar Ramchandani interned with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She is the first participant in the IACPA program to intern directly for this committee.

She was born in Philadelphia, Pa. and graduated in 2000 cum laude from Friends’ Central School in Wynnewood, Pa. She is completing her junior year at Brown University, where she majors in International Relations with a focus in Political Economy and Development. Ramchandani spent the fall of 2002 studying in Venezuela, where she conducted an independent study on women’s microcredit lending, a topic she will examine in her senior honor’s thesis. She has been very active in the Brown University South Asian Students Association and, as the Education chair on next year’s executive board, will help to organize a political action conference. As a sophomore, she served as a minority peer counselor. Tara also interprets for Spanish-speaking patients at Rhode Island Hospital and recently completed 170 hours of leadership training in the Brown Outdoor Leadership Training Program. Ramchandani is the recipient of an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Assistantship Award for designing a Hispanic Studies course with a professor in the department. Last summer, she was a research assistant at the Bangalore Institute for Social and Economic Change and conducted a series of interviews with IT sector employees in Bangalore.

Ramchandani plans to attend law school and eventually hopes to work on women’s development issues.

Veena Srinivasa is a rising senior at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, with a double major in public policy and sociology. She interned with Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who has hosted an intern from IACPA every year since the inception of the WLP in 1995.

Srinivasa’s family lives in Rep. Brown’s home state of Ohio. For the past year and a half, she has worked closely with her public policy advisor on research for his upcoming book about the law and politics of child sexual abuse. Last summer, she was awarded an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Assistantship grant to continue this research.

Srinivasa is a member of the South Asian Students Association, the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, a volunteer at Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island, and a three-year member of the Ultimate Frisbee team. She has previously interned in the office of County Commissioner Todd Portune, where she conducted independent research on the socioeconomic demographics of Hamilton County (Ohio) and helped to implement a Housing Improvement Loan program.