Today we’d like to introduce you to Devika Nambisan.
Hi Devika, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I started out as an immigrant in the US, so I had no idea about how anything worked in the US. When I got to high school, I had a better idea about everything and I was adapting to Texas. I knew that we would need volunteer hours and so I started volunteering through my school, doing many things just for volunteer hours. However, it was only after COVID-19 that I really started looking for volunteering or organizations that I wanted to work for. I joined as the Secretary of Girls In STEM club at my school (Liberty High School), and also found a few organizations to work with (Scholastican, Teens Teach Technology and NECEF). I am really interested in Science and Mathematics, so working for Girls In STEM was a great opportunity.
Additionally, Teens Teach Technology is an organization that focuses on teaching seniors about technology. I started out as a small part of it in June 2020, and now I am the Texas Chapter President of the organization. I believe that Teens Teach Technology is a great organization and I am honored to being able to start something similar for people in Texas. I hope to expand and improve my own chapter of Teens Teach Technology. In addition, I am also interested in teaching, so I started to teach elementary and middle schoolers through Scholastician and NECEF, which are both such amazing organizations that help in teaching students. In conclusion, I started out with knowing nothing and ended with being able to be a part of many amazing organizations. I hope to continue to be a part of all the three organizations and to expand my own chapter at Teens Teach Technology.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I had to face a lot of struggles, especially with establishing my own chapter (at Teens Teach Technology). Some struggles included being able to get more members, which I have overcome now because many people know the organization now and people tend to join because we give volunteer hours to high schoolers now! Another challenge I faced was managing and organizing everyone and working everything virtually, which has changed now because everyone started becoming comfortable with zoom. The executive board of Teens Teach Technology, especially the president Asmita Mittal has helped me overcome a lot of these challenges by guiding me on how to manage and do everything when starting up a new chapter.
A final challenge that I had to face was getting appointments with libraries and nursing homes, because sometimes even though they are interested in implementing our program, they are unable to do so because they can’t bring the older adult population to the library for the program. We have started to get appointments in Texas and will be starting to teach at more locations throughout Texas in the upcoming months, I take all these struggles as a learning opportunity and hope to expand and hopefully be able to teach more senior citizens more about technology!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I started out with managing the social media platforms at Teens Teach Technology. Then, I changed to being part of most of the teams at Teens Teach Technology (Public Relations, Social Media, and Presenters). Being part of the public relations, I contact (Call) nursing homes, libraries and other centers to set up appointments, schedule members from the team to teach the libraries and nursing homes, find other organizations with similar goals that we can partner with, frequently check our email and help respond to them, contact local magazines, programs, etc. to get featured to expand our outreach and check the website regularly to see if there are any appointments.
As a social media coordinator, I run the social media accounts (Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, create artistic posts for the accounts, create artistic stories for the accounts, and post frequent stories and posts, make our social media accounts extremely active. As part of the presenters team, I present our lessons created to the facilities that we partner with. I believe that my traits make it easy and fun for me to accomplish all these. These traits include being outgoing, polite, persuasive, being creative, having a likeable personality and many more. I am proud that we have been able to teach almost 140 people (over the country) and have partnered with about 35 facilities (over the country). I started with this organization from June, and so I have been with them almost from the beginning. I believe that I am very dedicated to this organization and have great communication skills, which help me in improving my own chapter, as well as helps me in working well with the members of our team at Teens Teach Technology.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I feel that being outgoing, having a good personality, and having good communication skills is very essential to my success. Being polite and being part of the organization because you want to and not for the volunteer hours is something that builds dedication in someone. I believe that being dedicated, working for the success of your chapter and the organization as a whole is the most important to my success.
Contact Info:
- Email: technology.by.teens@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.teensteachtechnology.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teens.teach.tech.texas/
- Facebook: facebook.com/teens.teach.technology/?view_public_for=105823834501564
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/_teensteachtech
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNenswbyXaMgwRzXbGTrjQA/featured?view_as=subscriber
Image Credits
Teens Teach Technology, Canva
