Pooja Patel- Uplifting Humanity

As we recently learned, Arjun Gupta has been named the official spokesperson of "Uplift Humanity", a service organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of juvenile inmates in South Asia. Part of his duties as spokesperson was selecting a winner in a video submission contest with the volunteers of Uplift. Today we have the pleasure of speaking with that winner: Pooja Patel.

Pooja Patel is a South Asian high school student in New Jersey who is advocating for human rights and education in third world countries- I know, she's' a better person than all of us-. We spoke with her about Uplift Humanity, how it operates, the bonds she formed while she was there, and how the volunteers ended up learning more than the juveniles they were supposed to be teaching. We also discuss why she was drawn to this project, and try to further explore the mindset of our South Asian-American youth- a subject that fascinates Arjun and myself because we're super old.

In much the same way that she learned more from the youths she counseled than she taught, Arjun and I learned more from Pooja than we probably ever could have taught her. It was truly a pleasure to talk to such a mature, intelligent, thoughtful young lady. The future is in good hands.