The Germination Project is nurturing the next generation of Philly leaders
Citizens of the Week: Germination Project Fellows
Local teens go along to blaze trails in far-ranging fields, from finance to science and beyond. Grownups: Consider yourselves warned.
May. 11, 2021
Could a podcast be life-changing?
For Mary Cipperman, 18, it certainly has been. From the fourth dimension she started high school, the senior at Episcopal Academy had been a devotee of Pod Save America, the accolade-winning podcast from former Obama aides Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor. And then she was particularly excited to nourish a live recording of an episode in New York in the fall of 2019, where Georgia political superstar Stacey Abrams was the special invitee.
"[Abrams] talked about voter access legislation and the ways in which young people, especially, confront legal barriers to voting," Cipperman explains. Inspired, she decided to written report the issue further.
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"I spent the next six-plus months developing enquiry on the 2013 Supreme Courtroom case Shelby County v. Holder," she says, referencing the landmark case virtually the constitutionality of aspects of the Voting Rights Human action of 1965.
As her inquiry progressed, Cipperman felt compelled to "use this understanding of how our balloter arrangement works to immature people and to grassroots activism." She wanted to create a student grouping that would travel to Harrisburg and practice in-person lobbying.
Then the pandemic hit, and Cipperman realized she'd have to shift her focus to a virtual format. She reached out to agreeing friends in other states—Arizona, California, New York—and launched the National Arrangement for Youth Activism (NOYA), a nonpartisan online community and outreach network dedicated to promoting youth activism.
NOYA's goal is to educate young people about voting participation and civic engagement more broadly; the NOYA website includes easy-to-navigate resources for registering to vote, organizing a voter registration drive, and so on. And last summer, Cipperman organized a iii-day online conference; 70 students from around the country joined to hear from speakers like politician Kendra Evans; Anika Manzoor, executive director and president of the Youth Activism Project; Generation Vote CEO and cofounder Brianna Cea; and others.
"All young people have the power to brand a departure," says Cipperman, who will be heading to Harvard next fall, where she envisions studying government and ultimately pursuing a career in law and advocacy. She plans to tap a local high schooler to deport the NOYA torch locally, while launching a similar college attempt herself.
One of many Germination Project fellows
Cipperman is merely one of the many talented and tireless teens who, since 2015, take been named Fellows by the Germination Project, the nonprofit initiative founded by Philadelphia lawyer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Ajay Raju. Raju, who is also a co-founder and board chair at The Citizen, sees the Germination Projection equally a "catalytic incubator for Philadelphia's adjacent generation of business, political and civic leaders."
The plan'southward nearly established initiative is its coveted Summer Leadership Boot Military camp, a 2-week program originally designed past the University of Pennsylvania'due south Wharton Schoolhouse of Business concern/Wharton Social Impact Initiative, and at present run through Penn Medicine; information technology aims to inspire fellows to "maximize their individual potential and ability to brand a broad positive impact on the world through a two-fold approach of leadership development and social entrepreneurial skills development," says Raju.
Each year, the project chooses about 20 10th grade students from a competitive field of applicants from public and individual schools, nurturing their interests in a wide range of fields through the boot campsite, mentorship opportunities, internship placements, networking, funding, and unlimited encouragement.
Take Mitav Nayak, a 17-year-sometime inferior at The Haverford School. The Germination Project inspired him to channel his passion for economics to a particularly timely try: analyzing the City of Philadelphia budget. "I'm really interested in economics and finance—I took macroeconomics, and I'g taking microeconomics correct now and actually enjoying it," he says.
For the terminal year, with Raju's encouragement, he'southward been taking a deep dive into the publicly available data most the Urban center budget, preparing infographics to explain where our money is going to and coming from, and how it's been impacted by the pandemic and the American Relief Plan as well.
"The projections versus what actually ended upward happening, which we learned a few weeks agone, weren't very far off," he says. "It wasn't completely accurate, simply it also wasn't as far off as you'd expect, given how crazy the final year has been."
"All young people have the ability to brand a difference," says Cipperman, who will be heading to Harvard next fall, where she envisions studying regime and ultimately pursuing a career in law and advocacy.
While Nayak hasn't worked in any chapters with City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart, he'due south eagerly looking frontwards to the take a chance to do and so, equally he helps to get a civic boot army camp programme off the ground for futurity cohorts of Formation Project Fellows.
"The numbers are actually interesting and it's really cool to learn about how a city manages a budget, but this is also the kind of research that tin can exist applied to any sort of profession or state of affairs where you take to go out on your own and attempt to figure out what's going on, depending on the trouble you're looking at," he says.
Like Cipperman, Nayak relished the journey of "starting from scratch" and piecing together information in a way that would be easily digestible and appealing to others.
He believes firmly that the key to success as a immature person is to go along trying things y'all may be passionate about. "You can find a style of being impactful no matter what you are interested in. Simply exercise your all-time to figure out how you can employ your interests to brand a difference or help others," he says.
And persistence, he says, is cardinal, a lesson he learned from his parents who, like much of his extended family unit, immigrated to the U.Due south. from India. "They taught me to e'er work hard, and to never take annihilation for granted."
A chance to expand outreach
Working difficult, making a difference—those traits have underlined all of the endeavors Keen Valley High School junior Prithvi Parthasarathy has taken on from the time he was in middle school. There's the literacy nonprofit he launched—Story Journey—through which he distributes books and advocates for indigenous literature integration with public schools, to spread multicultural stories to young students.
The Germination Projection has enabled him to expand his outreach even farther, to distribute books and hold online workshops in 6 Philadelphia public schools, where he'southward setting up indigenous literature libraries. And and then there's his work over the last twelvemonth on the Corona Project, an endeavor of Dr. David C. Fajgenbaum's lab at Penn Medicine.
You can find a way of being impactful no matter what you are interested in. Just do your best to figure out how yous can apply your interests to make a difference or assist others," Nayak says.
Since June 2020, thank you to an introduction by the Formation Project, Parthasarathy has been role of a team that's analyzing published medical periodical articles, looking at what could be "promising drugs to prioritize for clinical trials."
So is it intimidating, nerve wracking, to exist 17 and working alongside world-renowned scientists and graduate students on critical, timely inquiry?
"I've always welcomed challenges," he says. "And the physicians and doctors and researchers that have been fighting this pandemic, utilizing efforts to the maximum, they're my role models."
This summer, Parthasarathy volition be interning at the biopharmaceutical company Ocugen, helping with research about the Covaxx Covid-19 vaccine.
"All research stems from the idea that some problem needs to be solved," he says, explaining what motivates and excites him nearly his scientific pursuits.
Cipperman, Nayak, and Parthasarathy are just a cross-section of the recent Formation Project Fellows, students who have a spark that the GP invests in and fuels to the maximum. You tin learn about all of the Fellows hither. And while the students' backgrounds, interests, and talents are decidedly unique, they do share one—particularly reassuring—trait: a commitment to making Philly, and our planet, a better place.
Forget Pod save America—these teens are already on it.
Header photo, from left: Germination Project fellows Prithvi Parthasarathy, Mary Cipperman & Mitav Nayak 
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/germination-project-2021/
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