15-Year-Old Mohegan Lake Student Inspires Girls To Think Big

MOHEGAN LAKE, N.Y. -- Raina Ghosh, a Lakeland Copper Beech Middle School student was one of nine awardees from across the country who took part in the nationwide ThinkBIG Challenge, a nonprofit organization established two years ago by then 13-year old Jothi Ramaswamy.

Mohegan Lake student Jothi Ramaswamy is behind ThinkSTEAM, which recently granted awards to girls in grades to eight.
Photo Credit: *Submitted*

Jeanne Muchnick

08/23/2017 6:30 a.m.

ThinkSTEAM, her 501(c) 3 Mohegan Lake-based group, profiled in an earlier Daily Voice story, operates with financial backing from organizations including Ardsley-based Acorda Therapeutics, Purchase-based PepsiCo, IBM in Armonk, Wal-Mart and PepsiCo.

The organization is built around recognizing female talent in the math, technology and science fields. This summer, it passed out awards to girls in grades two to eight from Arizona, Minnesota, Washington, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

Ramaswamy, a rising junior at Lakeland High School, is passionate about building awareness about the power of girls who often go unrecognized when it comes to technology. She spent part of her summer doing research at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights and is now interning as an iOS App developer at the XO Group in New York City. (See earlier Daily Voice story about Ramaswamy HERE.)

The 15-year-old has also been recognized as one of 30 #HERlead fellows out of over 800 from ANN INC. and Vital Voices, and got to attend the #HERlead leadership forum in Manhattan, where she met and was mentored by influential female leaders from around the world who are catalyzing social change in their nations.

Ramaswamy also was one of Apple’s 350 scholarship winners around the world who attended Apple’s 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, CA in June.

In addition to hosting the ThinkBIG Challenge, ThinkSTEAM has also held 22 workshops in partnership with several organizations and corporations, including Facebook, Google, IBM, Accenture and Columbia University.

ThinkSTEAM has also finished its first pilot mentorship program for high school girls this year in partnership with PepsiCo, a platinum sponsor of the MillionWomenMentors movement.

Over the past two years, through workshops and the ThinkBIG Challenge, ThinkSTEAM has inspired over 350 girls from eight different states to join the movement to raise STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] awareness in girls.

“STEAM is important because it deals with so many aspects that can change the world for the better,” said Ghosh, the Middle School Division runner-up of the ThinkBIG Challenge. “I am glad to be a part of [this movement].”

For more information about ThinkSTEAM, go to www.thinksteam4girls.org/.

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