While APO has led to so many great memories for me, I’ve been especially fond of Big/Little weeks because of how exciting they are for both brothers and pledges. I remember being that pledge who overanalyzed every email my big (hi Bhavya love u mom) sent to me during classes, and I was so excited at the end of the week when I learned I guessed her correctly! The whole week always leads to such funny interactions, and has always ended with me growing closer to not only my Big/Littles, but also to everyone at events as we investigated our Bigs and tricked our Littles.
I initially joined APO solely for service, yet I had no idea that the brotherhood would become such an important community to me. Over my years as a brother, I’ve learned new ways to meaningfully impact the service areas I’m most passionate about such as poverty and diversity, while additionally I was exposed to so many kind people who helped me navigate my college experience in both good times and bad. I’ve even been able to grow professionally due to both technical and teamwork skills I’ve learned from leadership opportunities, further making me grateful for choosing to rush.
Most recently, I’ve become quite passionate about design justice within the technology industry, specifically health technology. There are many structures in place involving algorithms which further marginalize disadvantaged communities, which I fear will continue getting worse so long as everything becomes technologized. I’m currently taking courses to learn more about addressing these algorithmic-sourced inequalities, and I’m also entering the health data industry to better equip myself to tackle these problems, either from within the industry via design justice methods or externally through policy work.
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