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Youth Activity Speakers
Bonita Parikh is currently the Director of Events for YJA, and previously was the South Regional Coordinator. After graduating from Texas A&M, she started working at Hewlett Packard as a Data Analyst. Aside from work and YJA, Bonita enjoys dancing, eating endless tubs of ice cream, and jamming out to anything Bollywood/Drake. She laughs so much on a daily basis that her stomach hurts, so if you ever need a good laugh, you know where to go :) She challenges you to come play Family Feud!
Chintav Shah is originally from central New Jersey, and a college student at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in business and engineering. He spent his last summer tutoring high school students and is spending this summer interning for ADP. Chintav enjoys connecting religion, philosophy, and history, and making it relevant and interesting. He likes playing ultimate frisbee for fun and recommends the movie The Fountain to anyone who hasn't seen it.
Hemang Srikishan is a spiritual thief. Since high school and college he has gleaned teachings from his friends of various faiths and tried to put them in practice in order to strengthen his Jainism and Hinduism. As the son of a Hindu father and Jain mother, Hemang is deeply interested in religion and how principles from any faith can be used for self improvement. Professionally, Hemang is a middle school math teacher that teaches in a Chicago charter school. His love for service, religion, and youth action has led him to become a teacher both professionally and within the Jain community.
Hetali Lodaya is a senior at UNC-Chapel Hill studying Chemistry and Public Policy. She loves science policy, social entrepreneurship, and law, as well as bhangra, scifi/fantasy literature, and NCIS. She has been a pathshala student and assistant teacher for many years, first in Detroit and now at the JSCNC in North Carolina, and previously served on the YJA Board as Southeast Regional Coordinator. She thinks it is vital for everyone to have their own understanding of what religion means to them, and hopes her session will help you explain that meaning to others!
Jainism: The Global Impact
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