Amongst the likes of Bill gates, Michael Bloomberg.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Town & Country Magazine has named three Indian Americans among the 50 biggest philanthropists of 2015, putting them in the company of such names as Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, and Leonardo DiCaprio.
The list features New York-based Adarsh Alphons, Reshma Saujani and Shaila Ittycheria, all of whom are under the age of 40.
Saujani, 39, is the founder of Girls Who Code, a three-year-old nonprofit that teaches computer skills to girls from low-income communities to close technology’s gender-gap. T&C noted that while demand for programmers has skyrocketed, the percentage of computer science graduates who are female has plummeted from 37 percent to 12 percent over the past 30 years.
“This is more than just a program. It’s a movement”, Saujani said.
Alphons founded ProjectArt, a program that offers at-risk youth free art classes at public libraries throughout all five boroughs of New York City. His goal is to help troubled students and change the way the world views art, since he believes it can save lives.
Alphons was a troubled student himself according to Town & Country, and was once expelled from elementary school for drawing at the expense of his studies. He found direction when an art teacher began encouraging his talent, and he founded ProjectArt in 2011 in an effort to the same for others.
Using its unique library-partnerships model, Alphons’ organization helps youth express their artistic visions, set goals, and display their art in celebrated art galleries in New York City, all at no cost to the students.
Alphons, who is the son of former Indian bureaucrat KJ Alphons, has been painting portraits for Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela and the Pope by the time he was 15 — all because one art teacher perceived his passion for art and believed in him, per his website.
Ittycheria, 31, cofounded Enstitute, a company that circumvents colleges by placing its students in paid tech apprenticeships.
Working to address both the growing cost of higher education as well as the current youth unemployment crisis, Enstitute provides young adults with one year, full-time, apprenticeships at high growth startups, small businesses, and corporations around the country to prepare them for the workforce and accelerate their career trajectory, according to the company website.
Other Asian Americans on the list include Jane Chen, creator of the life-saving Embrace infant body temperature regulator, and Priscilla Chan, wife of Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and one half of the couple Town & Country called “the next Bill and Melinda Gates.”