Stanford University welcomes graduate applications from individuals with a broad range of experiences, interests, and backgrounds who would contribute to our community of scholars. We invite you to share the lived experiences, demonstrated values, perspectives, and/or activities that shape you as a scholar and would help you to make a distinctive contribution to Stanford University. My understanding of the world is shaped as much by learned experiences as it is by lived ones. I have consistently sought connection and engaged in conversations with the communities I'm a part of and I truly believe that the one of the most important ways to learn is by understanding people. There are certain themes and perspectives that have transcended cultural and class boundaries and those have left a deep impact on me. I have always been a people pleaser and I find it incredibly hard to say no to others. However, several pivotal incidents have underscored the importance of adhering to my beliefs and upholding my core values. When I was setting up my second after school learning center as part of my non-profit I had to negotiate for a space with a local leader with a rich criminal history. I was able to establish a connection with him and he allowed us access to the "Community Center" in the area. Initially, the arrangement was successful, with noticeable progress among the children. Slowly though, the leader started to get more involved and placed demands on how things should go and who should participate. The moment we deviated from our process and core ideas though the children just could not thrive. At my startup CraterClub, a completely different relationship presented a similar challenge. At a particular juncture where we had not found Product Market Fit, we were encouraged by our investors to pursue growth at all costs. Our inability to push back and iterate further was in the end one of the reasons for our failure. While it can be hard to say no particularly to those in authority or power I realised the importance to stay true to your process and values. Relationships are the key to transformation. I believe that a community is only as strong as the number of individual associations it fosters. At our learning center a boy who had just returned from a juvenile detention center after stabbing someone wanted to participate. It was a difficult time for us all accepting him and we all feared him. Community members and children alike were not keen for him to participate but we stayed true to our principle of inclusion. Over time as we connected with him he emerged as one of our strongest supporters in the area and would use his experience to advise other children. His inclusion had inspired many other children about their possibilities. A similar experience occurred with our engineering team at CraterClub. The pandemic made it very difficult to build individual connections and there was an undercurrent of tension, with blame being thrown around. What eventually helped break the ice was our collective enthusiasm for DotA, a multiplayer online game, instrumental in forging stronger team bonds. As we invested time playing the game together, we got to know know each other better and we soon saw a significant improvement in our collective productivity and collaboration. Throughout my life I have tried to strengthen the communities I'm a part of by helping build connections. During college, I started an initiative to have Chai with Strangers. I extended invitations to neighbours and fellow students and even developed a website for strangers to register and join us for chai. Some of my most enjoyable memories of college have been from these interactions and to this day I'm still friends with the 'strangers' who first came over for chai. Stanford presents a unique opportunity to engage with a vibrant community and I'm excited about the potential collaborations and the diverse perspectives that I could learn from. I aspire to continue to create spaces for connection and learning and I am eager to bring this passion to Stanford.