I realize that I've delved significantly into my work without giving you a proper introduction. As you may remember, I am currently a student at Arizona State University pursuing my Master of Public Administration degree. But, to get a better idea of why I am here today, let me give you a background of where I come from.
When ever someone asks me where home is I usually respond saying Atlanta, Georgia. While this answer seems to make most sense, it is a little complicated. I was born in Atlanta but at the age of two my family moved to Mumbai, India. At the time, my dad worked for Coca-Cola and the company was being reintroduced to India after being kicked out in 1977 due to a nationalist movement. After four years in Mumbai, my family moved to New Delhi since Coca Cola was shifting its office to the capital of India. Fast forward another four years and my family was packing its bags once again to move to Jakarta, Indonesia (a place I had never known even existed until the year 2000). Again, four years later, and I was starting my 10th grade of school in Sydney, Australia.
So as you may have gathered, I've moved around, a lot. It was only a little over three years ago that I decided to come back "home" to Atlanta where my parents had recently bought a house to gain some sort of permanency in where I live. Shortly after coming back to America, I began volunteering (and then working) at United Way of Greater Atlanta. I had always known since high school that the type of work I do should make an impact in the community. Having been brought up in developing countries, I had been exposed to several of society's ills that needed attention.
One of the bigger problems facing Atlanta is its homeless veteran population, which is higher than the national average. While working in Atlanta, I served on a government grant that required United Way to house 300 homeless veteran families within one year. Although I enjoyed the work I was doing, a part of me knew I was not done studying yet. It was finally in April 2013 that I was accepted into the MPA program at ASU and decided to pack my bags once again to begin this chapter of my life.
Hi Nehal,
ReplyDeleteHaving exposure to many different cultures must have had an impact on you. I hope Phoenix has lived up to your expectations. I have also come across the homeless veteran population issue in my work at Morrison Institute and another class (591). I am curious what policies the city of Atlanta adopted to address this issue? In the last year and a half, Phoenix has achieved zero percent (homeless veterans), but I wonder what does this number truly mean?
I look forward to reading more about your experiences.
Nehal,
ReplyDeleteThank you for explicating on your background- it's so meaningful to have such a breadth of experience and culture comparison already. It gives you a keen eye to issues that need to be remedied, as well as a potentially differently structured approach to an issue that might be best suited as a solution. Different perspectives can create such a better net for productive thinking and problem solving.
Best of luck in your Master's progress!