Agents of Change, agenda of change

Students from the Ro Khanna campaign come together to make change

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Photo by Andrew Zhou

Students pose together at the event.

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As election season ends and new representatives are sworn into office, students around the 17th Congressional District continue to push for change.

Such students include juniors Hasini Shyamsundar and Anisha Kollareddy from Monta Vista High School. They both co-founded an organization called Agents of Change, dedicated to furthering the agenda of Representative Ro Khanna.

“We have students from Fremont, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Sunnyvale – all over the district,” Kollareddy said.

According to Kollareddy, the organization aims to connect with other organizations, learning about the issues that they are working on solving and making change.

“Our goal is to advance Ro’s platform while he is in DC. Change in Silicon Valley requires this initiative and energy,” Kollareddy said.

According to Shyamsundar, they are currently focusing on working on homelessness, poverty, youth empowerment and mental health.

“Right now we’re partnered with Sunday Friends in San Jose, Abode which is located in Fremont, Boys and Girls Club which is located in Milpitas, there’s 42 University, which is teaching kids how to code,” Shyamsundar said.

Most of the volunteers taking part in this organization, have volunteered on Congressman Khanna’s campaign as well, according to Kollareddy.

“The best part was having conversations with these people,” Kollareddy said. ”You know, going to their house, knocking on their door, and taking a couple minutes of their time and having really really nice conversations.”

The two have goals set in place for their club as well.

“Our goal is to push Ro to make some change in the district, policy-wise. But that’s very long-term,” Shyamsundar said.