#YJA2021Wrapped: Small Wins in a Big Year

Sheily Shah

When we look back at the year behind us, it’s natural to think about the big breakthroughs. Whether that’s starting a new job, going on a transformative trip, or achieving a large goal, you’re more likely to remember the big things. These moments are beautiful, and worth celebrating. However, sometimes we neglect the smaller steps that were necessary to get to these big milestones.

We wanted to showcase members from the YJA community who have made big impacts in their own pockets of the country over the last year. We asked these members to share some of the smaller victories in their journeys before they culminated as a big breakthrough.

Neev Maru | MC3D

Neev’s Story: When Neev Maru started a small robotics boot camp with some friends in his basement in Massachusetts five years ago, he didn’t know it was going to grow to the scale it did in 2021. As a passionate member of the First Lego League, Maru felt that it was time to pay it forward and teach younger kids skills like teamwork and problem-solving that come with robotics. He created an organization called MC3D, which runs a series of highly interactive workshops on robotics and programming for elementary and middle school students.

Big Breakthrough: By 2021, MC3D ran in Kentucky, Indiana, Massachusetts, and California. 24 mentors and 400 students participated across 35 workshops. These workshops were successful because they consisted of immersive teaching tools, like metaphors, analogies, games, and various interactive activities. Maru noticed that when students were taught by someone who was only four or five years older than they were, it was a more relatable and inspirational experience for them.

Small Wins: At the end of the day, MC3D’s success came through a series of small victories. One example was when a student from an immigrant family joined the course. Maru noticed that she was really shy but ended up gaining confidence and engaging actively throughout the weekend

“At the closing ceremony, we bring families to celebrate the weekend,” he said. “One girl was jumping up and down talking to her mother, who spoke broken English, and her brother was translating what she was saying to her mom in real time. That moment was one I felt really proud of.”

Saagar Sanghavi| JSA @ Berkeley

The Decal Recap: In his freshman year, Saagar Sanghavi worked with senior members of the Jain Students Association (JSA) at the University of California at Berkeley to create a decal on Jainism. A decal is a student-run course that can be offered for other students to take. Last year, it was led by Sanghavi, along with three other JSA members. The aim of the course was to view Jainism from different lenses. The course was taught from academic, historical, philosophical and self-improvement perspectives. Students learned about Jain architecture, reflected on Jain music, discussed fundamental Jain concepts and theories, and watched scenes from “PK” to think deeply about the nuances of non-creationism.

Big Breakthrough: In this past year, there were 30 students across the two semesters this class was offered. The student composition was diverse — there were students who were devout Catholics, someone who recently converted to the Baha’i faith, Hindu students who didn’t know much about Jainism, and those who didn’t associate with any religion.

Small Wins:

“I asked my students to plan out their mood every hour of the day, for at least three days. When they came back to class, they were so surprised that doing that for three days allowed them to better anticipate feelings of frustration and anger. They were starting to learn to resolve those feelings before negatively expressing them.”

Khushi Malde | T&E Ladder

Khushi’s story: Khushi Malde, a Kenyan native, moved to California for college and noticed a striking difference in educational systems between the U.S. and Kenya. The biggest difference she noticed was the discrepancy of resources devoted to learning about entrepreneurship and technology in developing countries. With her strong background in the entrepreneurship space, she created a non-profit organization called the Technology & Entrepreneurship (T&E) Ladder to bridge this opportunity gap. The T&E Ladder is an organization focused on offering technical workshops to high school students in developing countries.

Big Breakthrough: The organization partnered with 23 high schools in Kenya, alongside 20 mentors and 50+ professional resources across the globe.

Learn more about the T&E Ladder here!

Small Wins:

“I started off in the private school ecosystem because they already had some context of technology and entrepreneurship. However, I noticed a lot of drop-off because people weren’t seeing value — education in Kenya is more “by-the-book” and this wasn’t deemed necessary. A small win last year was when I pivoted to offer these courses for free to public school students. That made a huge impact. Seeing public school kids who had never heard of the startup space get excited and stay engaged was really rewarding.”

Paryushan On Campus

As students made their way back to campuses this past fall, some of them missed celebrating Paryushan and Das Lakshan at the temple. In an effort to bring some of the community feel to campus, Sanghs across North America initiated ways to facilitate these festivals at college. Read on to hear from students from the University of Michigan and the University of California at Berkeley.

Aaryan Shah |University of Michigan — Ann Arbor

“When I moved from Chicago to Ann Arbor for college, my mom was concerned about how I would get fresh food and be able to do Pratikraman (introspective ritual where Jains reflect and repent for wrongdoing through speech, word and action). Aunties and uncles of JSGGD (Jain Society of Greater Detroit) started an initiative to deliver food for us in tiffins, and as someone who cannot cook Jain food, this was a huge blessing. There were also systems in place for us to go to the temple for Pratikraman or Puja, which was so fulfilling. In hindsight, it’s a great idea to increase the accessibility for Jain students on campus, and I think it should be done everywhere.”

Pranav Bhimani | University of California — Berkeley

“The goal for us was to create an environment on campus that follows in parallel with Paryushan at Derasars around the world. Two of the five kartavyas (duties or practices that Jains should follow during Paryushan) are Sadharmik Bhakti (serving other people and helping them reach their goals during Paryushan) and Kshamapana (asking for forgiveness). With these in mind, we offered daily morning and evening Pratikraman, graciously received delivered food from members of the JCNC Sangh, created a bhojanshala (place to congregate to eat meals together) in an apartment, organized a Pratikraman kit* and arranged a field trip to the Milpitas temple for Samvatsari Pratikraman (yearly Pratikraman done on the last day of Paryushan). We felt sort of a hole after the end of Paryushan on campus. It felt as if something was seriously missing from our day, which goes to show how much everyone enjoyed the week’s festivities.”

*Pratikraman kit includes: muhapatti (square of white cloth worn across the face to prevent bacteria spread during rituals), charvalo (small white bundle of cotton used to brush small living beings on the ground during rituals), katasanu (mat to sit on while doing rituals), and Sthapana Acharyaji (small stand that symbolizes a Jain spiritual teacher during rituals)

Small wins have big power, and deserve to be celebrated. As we venture into 2022, we urge you to reflect on the smaller victories on your way to the big breakthroughs.