Meet the Newest Class of San Francisco Global Shapers
We’re welcoming an amazing new class of Global Shapers to the San Francisco Hub. Learn more about them below!
Lingerr Marie Senghor
What brought you to San Francisco? I hadn’t planned to move here, and flew out here to get a free trip and see my best friend in Berkeley. But I spent the day at the school that flew me out and knew I had to teach there.
What are you working on? Nothing yet! Ideally something to do with the positive representation of marginalized groups.
What’s your passion/what matters to you? I am passionate about social justice and equity. I think improving the experiences and amplifying the power of the marginalized is the most important responsibility that we have. I am particularly invested in anti-racist practices.
What are you hoping to get out of your Global Shapers experience? I want to learn from diverse perspectives and passions, and ideally contribute my own voice as we strive to create impact in our immediate and extended communities.
What is something you want readers to know about you? I’m an avid (read- way too intense. Like scary intense) Liverpool fan, and a superhero nerd.
Will Kraft
What brought you to San Francisco? I was initially drawn to San Francisco because it’s a place where people are working on a lot of different ways to make the world a better place through technology, and I wanted to be a part of it. Specifically, I’m interested in helping people through the intersection of finance, technology, and international business, and San Francisco is a great place to do that.
What are you working on? I work on a small team at Flexport called Flexport Capital that provides loans to the companies that ship with us. These are primarily cash-constrained small businesses importing into the US, and we have a big impact on their ability to grow. I was the first junior hire on the team, so I’ve been able to see it grow from the ground floor, and it’s been a really rewarding experience because we have a big impact on the companies that work with us.
What’s your passion/what matters to you? I absolutely love finance! It’s all about getting people the resources they need to accomplish their goals, so I find it to be an incredibly rewarding field. It’s also impacts a lot of different things, so it’s fascinating to learn about.
What are you hoping to get out of your Global Shapers experience? I’d like to meet other young professionals who are interested in helping their community, and I’m interested in learning about projects that people are working on that are outside of my field. I volunteered with the ShaperTalks team for about a year before joining the Hub, and I’m looking forward to getting more involved.
What is something you want readers to know about you? In my free time, I like to read — both fiction and nonfiction — and I’ve been getting back into following basketball recently. One of my favorite things to do in the city is getting a scooter and riding around a neighborhood I haven’t been to yet. The city has so much to offer, so it’s fun to check it all out!
Ivan Leonardo Hartanto
What brought you to San Francisco? I have always wanted to live in San Francisco ever since I first visited the city (and the United States) back in 2010. Nevertheless, it was not until 2016 that I finally got to stay here on a permanent basis to pursue my master’s degree at UC Berkeley.
What are you working on? During the day, I work for UGSI Solutions, Inc. (a technology company that provides water disinfection and chemical feed solutions to local and international public and private municipalities) as sales application engineer and project manager. At night (and most weekends), I lead a team of 10+ volunteers in managing AskDarcel.org (a service directory web-app designed for the underserved community) and Datathon (a public volunteering program) at ShelterTech.
What’s your passion/what matters to you? I am very passionate about SDG 11 goal (inclusive and sustainable urbanization) as well as SDG 6 goal (sustainable sanitation and water management). Growing up in Indonesia where clean water is lacking and urban management is chaotic, I can truly relate with these two challenges faced by our world and am hoping to leverage my chemical engineering/business background to solve these two issues during my lifetime. Furthermore, as an individual/leader/worker, I am satisfied when I am able to empower others and to co-create values alongside the community that needs help the most. I thrive in multi-disciplinary, fast-paced team and appreciate work hard, work smart culture.
What are you hoping to get out of your Global Shapers experience? I truly am excited for the potential collaboration & learning alongside/with/from my fellow Shapers (and World Economic Forum’s members to a certain extent). I also hope that, through meeting other committed global (young) leaders, I can push my boundaries in imagining what is possible and to never settle for the status quo.
What is something you want readers to know about you? My real-life hero is JJ Watt, I was born and grew up in Indonesia, and I practice Kravmaga and windsurfing for fun. On a more serious note, I always enjoy meeting new faces, sharing what I have done/how can I help and learning about you. So please contact me directly at ivan@sheltertech.org if you’d like to chat/coffee/email to discuss anything :)
Amy Gragnolati
What brought you to San Francisco? Work! I’ve been here for almost four years and I love it.
What are you working on? I am currently working to grow my nonprofit, LONA (lonaproject.org). We invest in women’s ability to create economic opportunity for themselves and their communities.
What’s your passion/what matters to you? In my opinion, our lives are measured by the lives we touch! What matters to me is that every person has access to tools and resources that will allow them to find their own version of success. It is my passion to promote this and advocate for it wherever I can.
What are you hoping to get out of your Global Shapers experience? I am inspired by Global Shapers SF Hub’s commitment to collaboration, inclusion and action. I am excited to connect with a community who wants to have a tangible impact on the city we live in, and am looking forward to learning from everyone in the hub. I am also excited to broaden LONA’s impact through the Global Shapers network, as I believe LONA’s work is very in with the work of the hub.
Andrew Luu
What brought you to San Francisco? BART (Just kidding. No more Dad jokes from here). Growing up in San Jose and going to college in Berkeley, San Francisco has always been a part of my life. Most recently, San Francisco became where I work and part of my community.
What are you working on? Through GlobalShapers, I’ve had the opportunity to work on ShelterTech to find innovative solutions to address the needs of those who are homeless and to support those who are at risk of becoming homeless. Outside of GlobalShapers, I work on Wells Fargo’s Gateway team, challenging the status quo through innovative solutions to improve our customers’ experiences and financial lives. Outside of the office altogether, I’m working on finding balance/mindfulness and understanding the human condition.
What’s your passion/what matters to you? I’m a partner, brother, son, grandson and friend — those bonds matter most to me, and I’m constantly reminded of how those relationships shaped/enabled who I am today. That growing village of people who raised me and continue to educate me makes me thankful and motivates me to apply what I’ve been afforded to improve the lives of others.
What are you hoping to get out of your Global Shapers experience Hoping to meet and spend time with other individuals who are similarly working to improve the communities around them, to hear and learn their perspectives and to grow. I’m also hoping to ideate and implement some approaches to address social issues in SF and, to the extent that I can with my limited perspective, support others in their efforts to do so.
What is something you want readers to know about you? I fundamentally believe that with enough time and patience, it’s possible to relate with something in another person’s story. I believe that we have a lot more in common than we do in conflict, and that we often don’t have the opportunity to find those commonalities in our day-to-day lives. We have a lot of work to do, but always remember the things that make us grow, cry, and laugh in life are very likely shared. With that said — I, for one, like Roman numerals.
Sanjna Malpani
What brought you to San Francisco? The booming clean energy industry! I was very clear that I wanted to work in renewable energy and the most exciting opportunities in that realm were in San Francisco. I didn’t even think twice before moving here right after grad school — just for an internship.
What are you working on? I work for an energy storage software company called AMS — we’ve built and are operating one of the largest Virtual Power Plants in the world. Our software allows utilities to dispatch multiple batteries sited in different locations to fulfill demand in a particular area — which essentially offsets the need to build additional dirty natural gas peaker plants.
What’s your passion/what matters to you? Access to clean and reliable energy is what matters to me. As a teenager, I founded and ran a non-profit that worked in the energy access space in Mumbai, India and saw first-hand just how life-changing access to energy can be. Ensuring that future energy sources are clean and have minimum emissions is one of the greatest challenges of our time — it’s something I’m extremely passionate about!
What are you hoping to get out of your Global Shapers experience? I’m hoping to gain exposure to people, thoughts, ideas and cultures across the board. The Global Shapers community has always excited me because of its diversity and I can’t wait to learn from the other shapers.
What is something you want readers to know about you? I love baking and I’m always happy to experiment with food :)
Fatema Alzeera
What brought you to San Francisco? I initially moved out to the Bay Area for college but life and work intervened so here I am, 11 years later!
What are you working on? I’m a real estate strategist by trade and an urban planner at my core. My prior work has focused around the intersection of technology, innovation, and urban development.
What’s your passion/what matters to you? I’m very passionate in creating a just and equitable city for all, particularly as it relates to housing. There are huge spatial inequities that we as residents of the Bay Area witness daily — inequities that have generational effects — and I’m driven to do my small part in addressing that.
What are you hoping to get out of your Global Shapers experience? To meet and learn from other passionate folks who are shaking things up in their respective fields.
What is something you want readers to know about you? I’m obsessed with The Great British Bake-Off!
Raphaël Tshitoko
What brought you to San Francisco? Moved to San Francisco for the adventure. I wanted a change of scenery from my east coast life and hadn’t decided on where to settle after finishing undergrad. I took the leap when a close friend asked me to move in with them.
What are you working on? Currently working on a side project as a research assistant to an executive who’s writing a book on product management. It’s exciting because editing is something I’ve always wanted to do and I finally have the opportunity to do it but with a commitment that isn’t overwhelming but immensely enriching.
What’s your passion/what matters to you? What matters to me? Good question. I find that the word passion activates so many levels within in me. There is a vast level of inequality when it comes to education, so on a superficial level, I am passionate about making learning an accessible experience regardless of social status and instilling the activity of critical thinking in our younger generation. I am consciously trying to direct my efforts to make a difference in that arena. This sentiment is very much married to the work that I do currently as an educator. But subjectively speaking, I just love knowledge. I love engaging with new ideas, sharing them in conversations, understanding new perspectives and how we come to know what we know, all of it! This zeal keeps the world vibrant for me.
What are you hoping to get out of your Global Shapers experience? I find that what I’m looking to get out of Shapers will come in phases. The first is being a part of a network of like-minded individuals who in turn will reinforce my drive to lead initiatives that seek to ameliorate society’s shortcomings. The second would be gaining practical knowledge and skillsets that are applicable to a variety of projects, inevitably taking what I learn from my Shaper community to DRC. Maybe that inevitably will be the third?
What is something you want readers to know about you? I’m a huge fan of sci-fi. Growing up, my mother and I would watch episodes of the original Star Trek together and since then I’ve always loved consuming all forms of science fiction.
Dyana Diaz
What brought you to San Francisco? Work. Provide an artistic education and experience to immigrant youth and serve all youth equally in their arts development.
What are you working on? I work for SF youth theatre as a teaching artist and outreach coordinator. Right now I’m working in a theatre project called “The Afterlife” where we talk about teen violence and suicide
What’s your passion/what matters to you? Art should be a right for everyone, equally. It’s a form of self-expression and community building that is so important for humanity.
What are you hoping to get out of your Global Shapers experience? Share my way of looking at the world and understanding other ways of living. Sharing and community.
What is something you want readers to know about you? I’m a Puertorican teaching artist that believe that no human is illegal and the arts is the way to understand ourselves and our community. Tell your story, build a better community.
Pitichoke Chulapamornsri
What brought you to San Francisco? — To be a part of the startup scene!
What are you working on? — I work for an AgTech startup called CropOne, which is focusing on vertical farming. My role is to bring this technology to places that traditionally cannot grow food.
What’s your passion/what matters to you? I care about food and believes that access to fresh, nutritious, and clean food is a basic right for everyone.
What are you hoping to get out of your Global Shapers experience? I am hoping to build life-long friendships with like-minded people who care. I also hope to collaborate on projects that will solve local problems that have global implications.
What is something you want readers to know about you? I love cooking, traveling, and a huge fan of the Olympics game, having attended every Olympics Game since Beijing 2008 (both summer and winter). So, see you in Tokyo 2020 if you are going!
Eric Boucher
What brought you to San Francisco? A Master’s in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University.
What are you working on? I am a co-founder of Ovio (oviohub.com), and we are a catalyst for the tech for good ecosystem. We help social impact organizations build tech more collaboratively, and connect them with talented engineers who want to volunteer their skills.
What’s your passion/what matters to you? My passion is to understand and help others understand how we can best use our skills to create positive social impact.
What are you hoping to get out of your Global Shapers experience?
I am excited to be joining a diverse community of positive thinkers. In San Francisco, but also around the world. I believe that knowledge and opinion sharing are key to unlock change.
What is something you want readers to know about you?
If you think I’m complaining, I’m not. I’m just being French and pointing out the inefficiencies around us and improvement opportunities ;)
Maricel Saenz
What brought you to San Francisco? I came to the Bay Area to be a part of Singularity’s Global Solutions Program in the summer of 2017
What are you working on? I am the co-founder of Nextbiotics, a startup using synthetic biology to create antibiotic alternatives.
What’s your passion/what matters to you? I want to dedicate my life to solving big challenges, something that keeps me up at night is the state of our planet and in particular of our oceans.
What are you hoping to get out of your Global Shapers experience? An opportunity to work alongside like-minded individuals working on solutions for our local community.
What is something you want readers to know about you? Originally from Costa Rica and lived in Canada for a few years before coming to the US.
Mazin Jamal
What brought you to San Francisco? I was born in the East Bay, and have spent most of my life here, with a few of my formative years spent in Sudan, my home of heritage, and Dubai, a random left turn for 5 years in my adolescence.
What are you working on? I have a coaching and consulting practice that supports social and environmental change leaders, teams, and movements, and I founded and direct Holistic Underground, providing training, development and community to changemakers.
What’s your passion/what matters to you? I’m also a musician, artist, and live spiritually. All this because I’ve experienced burn out and losing track of my purpose as an activist, artist, leader and human in my own life, and seen how it wears away at the community and movement when we can’t stay in alignment with our values and wellness. So, I’ve dedicated my life to making sure that those who commit themselves to leadership and social change can do so with clarity, focus, ease and grace.
What are you hoping to get out of your Global Shapers experience? I’m looking forward to shapers connecting me with other visionary multicultural badass weirdos who will inspire my best self.
What is something you want readers to know about you? I want all other shapers to know I take great joy in supporting people, even if we don’t really know each other, and I hope that you never hesitate to reach out if you need anything :) and that I also might practice saying no if it’s beyond my capacity.
We look forward to creating real impact in our local community together with these new faces! To learn more about the San Francisco Global Shapers, visit http://sfshapers.com.
