Yo, this is Jonathan, one of the newcomers to the team. Welcome to post #2 of our School for a Village member spotlight series! Today, you’ll be introduced to our wonderful Director of Outreach, Mahija Ginjupalli.

Here at School for a Village, Mahija is the outreach director, which means she is the mastermind behind the chapter and ambassador system. She plays a huge role in the growth of our community and is always looking for ways to recruit new chapters and ambassadors throughout the nation! She is always hard at work with promoting the visibility of School for a Village and encouraging community engagement. We all know how much Mahija contributes to the community and the organization, so we decided to put her on the spot and throw a bunch of questions at her to find out what she does outside of School for a Village.

First of all, congratulations to Mahija for turning 21 this January! She is now officially an adult! Mahija was born in India and moved to the States at the age of 5. Since moving here, she has lived on both coasts, going from California to New Jersey, and now attends the University of Texas at Austin as a third-year student studying Neuroscience. 

Mahija’s family has had a huge impact on who she is as a person and what she is passionate about. She has an older sister who is currently a medical student at the San Antonio medical school pursuing an MD-MPH degree. There is no doubt that she has influenced Mahija because Mahija plans to strive for an MD-MPH degree in the future as well. However, the single individual in her family who has had the biggest impact on Mahija is her grandmother. In fact, her grandmother is one of the major reasons that Mahija decided to join School for a Village in the first place. Her grandmother was unable to enter secondary school because she got married at a very young age even though she is the one that enjoys learning the most in Mahija’s family. Because of this, Mahija became interested in exploring the topic of education in underserved communities. She started her educational work by tutoring STEM subjects in hospitals, and eventually joined School for a Village after seeing a post made by our CEO, Anjali Gupta, with whom she went to the same middle school.

All our team members at School for a Village dream of making a difference in whatever way we can and Mahija is the perfect example of that. Her passion for education has led her to tutor her peers and those who are younger than her as she finds utmost joy in helping people who are unable to find opportunities and obtain a quality education. Just recently, Mahija became interested in the Rohingya population, which is facing, in her words, “the largest ongoing refugee crisis”. She decided to work with a group of friends and professors at her school to create health education videos for the refugees. This small project of hers soon snowballed into an initiative. This is what she considers to be her proudest achievement – doing her part, learning about the process, and growing as a person throughout the project. I can definitely see how much Mahija finds joy in helping others – she even offered to help with the transcription of the interview we did with her!

Mahija doesn’t just have one role model… she is inspired by female leaders who are paving the way for younger females trying to enter the same field. This can range from her lab PI to the vice president herself, Kamala Harris. Mahija quotes, “we are standing on the shoulders of giants,” as powerful women have paved the way for female students like herself. Perhaps one day she too will become a leader who will pave the way for younger girls looking to make a difference in the world. One of Mahija’s favorite quotes is Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “the good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.” Mahija loves STEM courses, and her favorite has been neuroscience, hence why she decided to major in the subject at college. Mahija went into college like every other pre-med, but her career goals have shifted throughout her college experience. In the future, she wishes to research health disparities faced by underserved populations, especially people of color and minority populations, and focus particularly on neurology issues like epilepsy in these communities.

Ok, so we know all about her passions and future goals, but what does she do to relax in her free time? Mahija loves reading books in her free time – she has over 400 books listed in her Good Reads account! Personally, I read one book a year, usually a textbook, so I am very impressed with her commitment and dedication to reading. One of Mahija’s favorite fictional characters is Jude from the novel, The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. She respects Jude mainly due to her tendency to scheme. Some of her book recommendations are The Six of Crows series by Leigh Bardugo, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, and Verity by Colleen Hoover.

Mahija’s favorite food is boba, particularly the Hokkaido pearl milk tea from Sharetea, as she has a lot of memories associated with that drink from her time in high school. Plus, it’s practically brown sugar, and who doesn’t like something sweet once in a while. We then asked her the most difficult question out of the entire interview, which is what song she resonates with the most, and she answered with “Break My Face” by AJR. This song plays on the saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” by claiming that sometimes we do find ourselves in situations that may break us, but it’s alright because we can always find a way to keep moving forward no matter the circumstances.

And that’s the end of our second spotlight story! Hope you enjoyed learning about our Outreach Director, Mahija Ginjupalli.