YJA Convention 2000 07 LA Fourth

Author(s): Young Jains of America (YJA)
Publisher: Young Jains of America YJA USA

Page 81

EarthSave), and his wife, Michele Bissonnette. Ocean currently serves as President of Youth for Environmental Sanity.
OJAS PARKEKH: "These days Ojas avoids exposure to the real world as a doctoral Student at Carnegie Mellon where he dabbles in Math and CS. When not corrupting young pupils' minds, he might be found corrupting his own. He hopes to participate in service projects in India where he can also unlearn more about Jainism after he graduates."
PARAS MANIAR: “Born in San Diego, raised in Los Angeles, schooled in Berkeley and presently working in San Francisco, Paras is a Californian through and through. He graduated from Cal in 1999 with degrees in Economics and Political Economies. While at Cal Paras studied in Budapest, Hungary, and highly recommends education abroad programs to all college students considering it. Though schooled in the humanities, Paras currently works with H&Q's Global Technology Mergers & Acquisitions practice. Presently caught up in the dotcom hysteria, Paras' true passions encompass economic policy making in developing countries and he if he can ever figure out that darn Logic Games section on the LSATs he plans on heading out to law school in 2001.”
PAREEN SHAH "Hi! I've never written a bio-data before (thankfully), so here's my attempt: I live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area, but I'm originally from Sterling Heights, Michigan where I was involved with the Jain Organization of Youth (JOY) and the Jain Society of Greater Detroit. I recently graduated from the University of Michigan, where I was involved in a wide variety of campus activities. But enough of that standard bio-data stuff - I'm a huge Detroit sports fan, I play golf, and I love New York City."
PRAVIN K. SHAH established the Jain Study Center of North Carolina (Raleigh) in 1979. He is a JAINA director and chairperson of the Jain Internet/BBS committee. Mr. Shah is also a member of the Harvard University Pluralism Project Advisory Council as well as an advisor to the YJP and YJA organizations. He teaches extensively and has lectured to audiences of all ages all over the US.
He established the Jain BBS (Bulletin Board Service) in 1993, later converting it to the website www.jainism.org which provides Jain religious information worldwide electronically. At present more than 10,000 pages of Jain literature information are available on this site.
A sample of his lectures and presentations would include “Jain Literature" presented at the Parliament of World Religions 1993, Chicago; “Jainism on the Internet" at the YJA convention 1994, Chicago; “Comparative Religions” at the YJA convention 1996, San Francisco; "Fundamentals of Jainism" at the YJP convention 1998, Miami; “Philosophy of Karma" at Federation of JAINA convention 1997, Toronto; “Jain Workshop" consisting in five lectures on various topics at the Federation of JAINA convention 1999, Philadelphia; and “Uniqueness of Jain Karma Philosophy" and "Comparison of Eastern and Western Religions”, two papers presented at the Parliament of World Religions 1999, Cape Town, South Africa.
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