More Info
To learn more about the organization, visit globalexcel.org. To donate, ask about volunteering for a program, or to subscribe to the GlobalEXCEL newsletter, email Anjali Chandra at anjali.chandra2008@gmail.com.
Name: Anjali Chandra
Age: 21
Hometown: Chattanooga
Occupation: Founder of GlobalEXCEL
Typical 10-year-olds ask for video games, the latest gadgets, new toys and a party for their birthday. But Anjali Chandra was not a typical 10-year-old.
For her 11th birthday, the now-21-year-old asked for only one thing: that everyone she knew donate money to help her kickstart her own nonprofit organization. She raised $2,000.
Using her birthday boon, Anjali began GlobalEXCEL that same year. The organization is focused on empowering underprivileged students through education to help them achieve a financially secure future. Started in her parents' native India, she eventually moved her organization to the U.S. - right here in her hometown of Chattanooga, where she found similar inequities.
» I was inspired to start the organization based on my experiences in India. I would go there every year with my family. There's just really stark poverty that you just see everywhere, especially in Delhi. On the streets, there's tons of kids my own age caring for younger siblings and they looked like they didn't go to school. They had dirt all over their body, their hair was matted, and that image really struck me and I wanted to do something about that.
» I thought the best way to help them was to empower them through education.
» I started out just conducting basic school supply drives and distributing those to village kids in India. I would conduct English classes and technology classes in some slums outside of Delhi.
» In ninth grade at GPS, I was speaking with some pastors from inner-city Chattanooga and they kind of opened my eyes to the inequalities in education here. So I shifted my focus back to working here. We do a lot of programs related to cross-cultural education, as well as technology and also nutrition and health.
» I write the curriculums for all the programs; I physically oversee everything on a day-to-day basis. But it wasn't just me doing everything. We had a ton of community volunteers who served as mentors through the whole process.
» One of the most impactful programs was called "Immersion" in 2012. It was basically a virtual arts exchange program. I had partnered with a girls' school in India and inner-city girls in Chattanooga. They taught each other arts and crafts traditional to their region over Skype.
» Another program, which was started in 2014 and has now been taken over by UTC - and they expanded it to nine schools - is "Gig Bridge." That program taught minority students of English-as-a-second-language backgrounds how to develop apps. They then applied that to addressing health issues in the community.
» They came up with ideas for an app based on nutrition and obesity, and at the end they pitched those ideas to a panel of judges. Part of the prize for the winning team was that the app would upload to app stores for a year.
» I think, if anything, [GlobalEXCEL] impacted my childhood for the better. Firstly, it allowed me to channel my creativity to critically think about issues our community was facing and address these in innovative ways. Secondly, it really put things in perspective for me.
» Being able to interact with diverse, often marginalized communities kept me humble and imbued me with a desire to advocate for social justice.
»I just graduated from Harvard, and now I'm starting a master's program through UNC Chapel Hill. I majored in psychology and Spanish.
» It was definitely difficult keeping up with academics alongside GlobalEXCEL. Oftentimes, particularly during my junior and senior year of high school, I had to sacrifice something, whether it was sleep or other extracurricular activities. However, the joy I derived from the experience, then and now, definitely outweighed the sacrifices I had to make.
» Part of the reason why I decided to graduate from college early was so that I could dedicate myself to community service work full time.
» My parents played a huge role [in GlobalEXCEL]. My dad helped me get the organization off the ground. When I had approached him with the dilemma of the poverty that I had seen in India and feeling really uncomfortable and wanting to do something about it, he suggested that I should start my own nonprofit. He helped me secure the 501(c)(3) status. When I was implementing the programs, my mom was really instrumental in transporting me a lot of the time. She also helped with the medical part of some of the programs that I did because she and and my dad are both physicians.
» Service has been a really big part of my life because of my faith background. My family and I follow this spiritual called Shri Sathya Sai Baba. His philosophy is "hands that serve are holier than lips that pray." Basically, you can exercise devotion through service. That really resonated with me. I think that in the back of my mind, that was something that I always wanted to do, and I was able to carry that out through GlobalEXCEL."