October is homecoming month, and YI has embarked on a campaign to highlight the many alumni who have passed through our programs!
Young Invincibles has empowered young adults for 15 years; our network of youth community and student leaders numbers in the thousands. Young adults have proven time and time again that they will be the change past generations have hoped for. All we need to do is set them up for success.
Some now work as our colleagues and teammates, while others have been trailblazers at other institutions and programs. Some started their own campaigns to empower others. All around the world, YI alumni are doing wonderful work in service of the community.
Check out our next alumni highlight, Asha Rao!
Throughout our Young Advocates Board (YAB), YI gathers and trains the next generation of local community leaders. Throughout the program, advocates learn how to tell their stories impactfully, speak to elected officials, advocate for policy change, advise on YI policy, give public testimony, and cultivate community while gaining transferable skills.
This month, we contacted former IL YAB graduate and staff member Asha Rao to see her progress. We asked her some questions and asked if she had some wisdom to share with other advocates nationwide.
What are you up to now after your time at YI?
Full-time, I work as a pediatric occupational therapist in early intervention- I work in the suburbs of Northern Illinois and mainly serve BIPOC families and clients who span across diagnoses related to ASD, genetic conditions, and sensory processing differences.
I recently started my first non-profit organization, The Chicago Kasam, which aims to unite the Chicagoland South Asian community across the diaspora and generations while fostering healing through community building. We’ve been focusing on connecting creatives and professionals to foster more mutually beneficial partnerships and relationships and curating an omni-layer media approach to facilitate networking and connection-building for folks to learn and grow with each other. “Kasam,” in Hindi, means trust, promise, or solemn oath, which is what I felt our South Asian community needed most as we begin to reconnect with one another post-pandemic and in daunting times.
What is a skill you learned during your time at YI?
The importance of storytelling in community building: during my time at YI, I was focused on supporting campaigns related to college student mental health and providing support related to housing insecurities and homelessness. I was always encouraged and taught how to use my lived experiences as an ethos for why our work at YI was important. In the last six months since Chicago Kasam began, I have been using my story of how I grew up and my attempts to connect with the South Asian community my entire life to foster community, uplift brands, and businesses, and build trust in individuals and groups that may not have existed prior. Storytelling leads to genuine connection first, meaningful relationships or partnerships second, and transformative shifts in culture finally. Had it not been for Young Invincibles, I don’t think Chicago’s First South Asian Festival Showcase would have come to life the way it did.
Do you have any advice for current and future advocates?
Find power in your own lived experiences and in your own narrative: I used to look at my upbringing and the barriers I had to overcome as what made me different and, therefore, unable to belong to my community. When you share your own story, you find the catalyst to create the things you wish you’d always had. It’s also okay if things that you begin to curate as a part of your professional journey lead to healing and finding your most authentic self. I used to fear intertwining what I needed personally with what I was trying to do professionally, whether that was related to mental health or community, would complicate matters. In reality, using your own lived experiences and your story to fuel your passions and pursuits might be what you and your community have always needed.
