Past & Present: The Reformer ('09)

Continuing our alumni series, we interviewed a 2009 alum who's gone on to get involved in politics, attend Harvard Business School, and start a non-profit.

Q: Which class are you for Monta Vista?

A: Class of 2009...I’ll tell you this, my high school friends, whenever we talk, it feels like we’re still in high school together. I’m not kidding, it still feels like it’s junior year, and we’re right outside of the rally court [...] My high school friends have remained my best friends for most of my life, and I still feel young when I talk to them. I grew up in the Bay Area, Cupertino. When I was kid, I felt that Monta Vista was far more STEM focused than in the liberal arts, so I thought, okay, I don’t know if I fit in in that way […] I just thought there were so many more interesting things to do than just code [...]⁣

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I thought the only jobs you could ever have was being a computer scientist or a doctor. What I realized was the world is much broader than that [...] There’s people that go to law school or government, there’s a whole world of business and entrepreneurship out there that don’t require the same skill set and had I known those things I would’ve felt a lot better at Monta Vista. [...] I don’t know if you guys are familiar with the Indian auntie culture, but aunties are hella judgemental yo, you go to a party and they’re like “You want to study English in college? Well good luck finding a job.” and so it was really fun to prove them wrong. And I know they weren’t watching my life but sometimes I’m like “Aunties I proved y’all wrong.” ⁣

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Q: What were you involved in at MV?⁣

A: I was really involved in French back in high school, I liked the culture a lot, and thought it would be a cool thing to learn - I ended up falling in love with the language. I started a French debate club, as an extension of the French honor society, we used to get schools from neighboring cities and debate in French. ⁣

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Q: What’s one song to describe your time at MV? ⁣

A: Blink182’s “I Miss You” and this really strange but amazing techno song[Matrix - Trench Mix]. I heard it in 9th grade, I heard it every single day from 9th grade until I was like 25. It became my solid, if I don’t listen to it for a day, I’ll feel off.

Q: How does MV compare to life after? ⁣⁣

A: Academic stress at MV was the hardest I’ve ever experienced, harder than Harvard or Dartmouth. Once you get through MV, you feel prepared to handle anything — but more importantly, life gets way better and you find more calm no matter the storm.⁣⁣

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Q: How did you come to work for Ro Khanna? ⁣⁣

A: I went to Dartmouth undergrad, studied English Literature, and ended up taking up a job at a hedge fund […] I ended up quitting that job after 4 months to work on a political campaign, because I was 22 years old and thought, I need to follow my heart. And what's in my heart is working in political organizing. I ended up working for now congressman Ro Khanna. [...] After, I worked at a consulting firm for a year and a half, and then at Google for 3 years as a product marketer. These were roles I didn’t even know existed when I was at MV.⁣⁣

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Q: What are you doing now? ⁣⁣

A: I am doing my 1st year in my MBA program at Harvard Business School, started this program in the hopes of trying to do two things. One, I wanted to work on an entrepreneurial idea around mental health and wellness, and I wanted to particularly think about the students I grew up around, how do we combat the level of anxiety and depression? The second reason is that I really do think that capitalism needs some structural reform, and I wanted to ask those questions in the very place that has produced the modern version of it [...] when I was working in Google for my HBS, I would get free lunch and dinner, and I would drive 15 minutes over to East Palo Alto where students are on free and reduced lunches [...] So I thought, how in the world can these two cities live side by side[…] I just think the way we’ve structured capitalism is to basically favor the power and the rich, and we need to go into these kinds of institutions and ask the deep reform based questions. ⁣⁣

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Q: What is@passthetorch_bayarea?⁣⁣

A: A student mentorship program working with students at MV [...] pass-the-torch.org, MV alumni basically be a link leader to students. It’s a non-profit. Our goal is to help them improve their wellness, just help them with help and make a difference!