hyphenated twentysomething

A Chicagoan, An Activist: Someone you should know

Its nice to see a young Indian-American fighting against racism, discrimination, and empowering others to fight for their basic rights. It's even nicer to see that this kid decided not to follow a "traditional" career but rather use his education and time to help out others in his community and especially the growing, diverse immigrant population in the Chicago area. His name is Prateek Sampat and he is the Outreach Coordinator with New American Initiatives for the Albany Park Neighbourhood Council ( APNC). APNC's constituency is primarily South Asian and Latino immigrants (link).

In the US, said Sampat, racism was a system that 'has institutionalised one race over the other. It should not be an option that you can exploit one class of people more than the other'.

At the APNC, New American Initiative sets new immigrants on the path to citizenship. 'Our long-term goal is to build political power in the immigrant community,' said Sampat.

We need more people like him and especially students, young professionals, volunteers, and activists who want to do something both within and outside their ethnic communities to contribute to a more equitable and safe society. His work and those of many others like him is always very inspiring and encouraging. It's good to see young South-Asian Amercans doing something to increase awareness and civic participation. I wish I could be more like them!

posted by payal @ 1:19 PM