Introducing our Better Make Room Student Advisory Board Member —Swetha Prabakaran!
By: Swetha Prabakaran, Senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
In a word: WOW.
As I sit here typing this post, I am overcome with a sense of gratitude and awe while thinking about the experiences I was able to have while attending the 2017 School Counselor of the Year Ceremony — attending was truly an honor and a once in a lifetime experience. And I am so inspired and energized and beyond ready to tackle the work ahead.
Throughout the day, I met really cool people who came from so many different backgrounds and worked in so many different industries, but were all united with the same goal: to encourage more students to pursue, and complete, education beyond high school. I met first-generation students like Verlando Brown, who eloquently shared his story of becoming the first in his family to graduate from college when he finished his degree at Towson, and real-life superheros like Ms.Katherine Pastor and Ms.Terri Tchorzynski (School Counselors of the Year for 2016 and 2017), and other school counselors being honored at this event. It was also really neat to meet public figures like Connie Britton, Ted Allen, and Lana Parrilla and hear their own stories about why they are passionate about these initiatives — these are people I have seen in the spotlight and looked up to for years, so it was awesome to actuallyhave a conversation with these individuals about an issue that we were all passionate about. (And yes, I was completely freaking out on the inside the entire time. I still am.)
And as if all of this was not exciting enough, we all got to meet the Former First Lady herself during the event and hear her incredible speech. In all honesty, I actually do not have words to describe what that moment felt like. I could feel the passion that Mrs.Obama has for these issues as she gave her speech- the room was buzzing with energy and I felt so honored and humbled to have been able to witness that.
“But perhaps the biggest lesson I came away with was that while we have come so far, we still have a lot of work to do.”
I walked away from the event and full of ideas for campaigns and programs to implement. Learning about the Better Make Room Campaign’s overall goals and hearing from my fellow student advisors about the different challenges that students face on the path to college helped me refine my plans for the initiatives that I hope to start and grow during my time as a Better Make Room Student Advisor. In the coming months, I hope to apply these lessons to bring my community together and tackle the challenge of educating local students on the topics of financial education and the college search and application process.
But perhaps the biggest lesson I came away with was that while we have come so far, we still have a lot of work to do. And it will take all of us — high school students, college students, parents, teachers, counselors, public figures, elected officials, and so many others — working together to get to where we want to go as a nation.
Serving on the Better Make Room Student Advisory is such an honor, and I am so excited to see what we as a team will accomplish in the coming months and years. After all, this is just the beginning.
Swetha Prabakaran is a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) in Alexandria, VA, where she conducts research in the Mobile and Web Application Development Laboratory. She is an active member of her school’s Model UN Team, FBLA Chapter, and Swim & Dive Team. Swetha is a trained Bharatanatyam (a form of classical South Indian Dance) and performed her arangetram (Classical Dance Debut) in 2015. Swetha is the Founder and CEO of Everybody Code Now!, an international nonprofit working to empower the next generation of leaders, technologists, and entrepreneurs through technology education. For her work, she was named a 2015 White House Champion of Change and to the ILA 2016 30 Under 30. She looks forward to collaborating with Better Make Room to inspire all students to #ReachHigher.
