My name is Tanmay Sahni and I’m a senior at UCLA. I’m majoring in Public Affairs. I’m born and raised in western India. I moved to the US in 2016 and have lived in New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Santa Monica before moving to UCLA as a transfer student. I’m really into fitness, travel and food.
Since high school, I was always interested in business and finance. I read numerous books around the development of great ideas, self help for guaranteed success and investing in the future. The idea of Capitalist ownership, innovation and returns always fascinated me. Being a first generation college student, I went to a community college as an easy college start as I didn’t want to get overwhelmed and quit altogether. Along with taking certain classes in business, I also studied a little bit of philosophy as well as politics. I was again fascinated; this time by how different our lives are right now and how fortunate we are to live in today’s society. Yes, there are a lot of problems today but compared to the past, it’s actually very convenient to thrive as a species today. When I transferred to UCLA, I decided to pursue Public Affairs (a first time offering at the university) instead of traditional finance classes. I made this decision as I realized that the best way to create a business is actually by solving some of the society’s most prominent problems. I took numerous classes studying all about different problems in the US. Currently, the most prominent problems that I think shall be solved immediately are climate change, healthcare insecurity and Big Tech regulation.
Selecting internship sites for my final year at UCLA was a very tough job. There were many political opportunities that seemed interesting but I had to pass since I figured that a lot of work was very subjective in nature and could turn out to be controversial. Next, I liked some NGOs but their impact was mostly local and I thought that if I’m giving my time and energy for a good cause, why not try to maximize the impact. When I saw iACT, I was keen on the international impact. The highest amount of population growth in the next three decades is going to happen in Africa and yet, the world is somehow unable to efficiently assist them in solving their problems. Through iACT, I believe that I could get insights to culture, work methods and practicality from a region that I would otherwise have no access too.
iACT because… “I believe I have a lot to learn about and create change”.