Region 7 YA Announcement | New Young Adult Team

Loving Sairam! With Bhagawan's blessings, we are delighted to announce the new Young Adult team for Region 7.

Incoming YA Coordinator, Female - Ahimsa Govender

Ahimsa grew up attending the Sri Sathya Sai Center of Detroit Metro in Region 5. She was an active member of the Bethesda Sai Center in Maryland for several years during and after graduate school. She then moved to the Bay Area two years ago and is delighted to be part of the Sai world at the Fremont and San Jose Sai Centers.

Ahimsa has actively participated in the service, education, and devotional wings of the Sai organization, and feels fortunate to have been part of different Sai activities. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, she helped rebuild homes, distribute food, and establish a medical clinic for affected families in Mississippi. She has also volunteered at food banks and taught cooking classes for underserved families in Washington, DC. More recently, she has engaged with SSE children through mentorship and a summer cooking camp while also organizing a regional devotional music offering in the Bay area. Ahimsa represents the region on the National YA Service Taskforce, focusing on homelessness and child hunger. Outside of the Sai universe, she has worked as a senior health policy analyst for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over the past five years.

Favorite Quote: "Life is a challenge, meet it! Life is a dream, realize it! Life is a game, play it! Life is love, enjoy it!"

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Incoming YA Coordinator, Male - Ritesh Reddy

Ritesh was born into a family that already knew of Swami, so He was always in his life. However, his first true connection to Swami happened around 2015 when Ritesh started living on his own in a place where Sai activities were abundant and he got to participate in study circles, bhajans and seva activities.

Ritesh’s personal journey with Swami began during the World Youth Festival at Prasanthi Nilayam in 2016. Inspired by the connection the young adults have with Swami and the service activities they are engaged in, Ritesh is discovering his own connection with Swami. He has been attending Sai Centers for the past few years, and has served as a Center YA representative. He’s currently part of the national SAI Tutoring team, and co-leading the national YA Service Task Force on Homelessness and Child Hunger. Professionally, he is a Software Engineer at Google with a Computer Science background. In his free time, he likes to learn new things like gardening, woodworking, and recently, video editing.

Favorite Quote: "The Joy we cause in the Heart of God is the only worthwhile achievement"

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Continuing YA Advisor, Female - Geetha Vasudevan

Geetha was born and grew up in Salem, Tamil Nadu, India, and after finishing her PhD in biophysics, she moved to Baltimore, MD with her husband in 1993. Swami came into Geetha’s life in the mid-80's through her mother. Her parents and she have had many darshans of and interactions with Swami within and outside of Prashanti Nilayam. Once in Kodaikanal, Swami gave Padanamaskar to her husband (future at that time) and Swami threw chocolates randomly at the crowd and one of them hit Geetha hard on her head. Her mother could not hold her joy, and rest was history! Geetha became active in the SSSIO once she joined the Central San Jose (CSJ) Sai Center in California in 2000 and since then served as the Education Coordinator for CSJ, Group 3 SSE teacher and now teaching Group 2 SSE. She participates in center-led service activities regularly and finds new opportunities to engage SSE kids. Her first interactions with the region were in co-leading regional activities and events. Geetha is a proponent of zero waste go-green and has supported YA initiatives to that effect.

Professionally, Geetha is currently working as a Biopharma Research Informatics lead, dealing with research data for drug discovery for therapeutic areas such as cancer and neuroscience.

Favorite quote: “The Voice of God Can Be Heard Only in the Depth of Silence.”

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Continuing YA Advisor, Male - Sunil Kasturi

Sunil grew up in Chennai, India and has been involved in Sai Center activities from his teens. He was mainly involved in bhajans and then service, and had the opportunity to see Swami a number of times before moving to the US. Since then, Sunil has served in various roles in the SSIO Region 6 area as the Center President, Center Devotional Coordinator, Regional YA Coordinator and the Regional Devotional Coordinator. Nationally, he helped lead devotional offerings in Prasanthi Nilayam during US pilgrimages. Sunil currently attends the Sathya Sai center of San Francisco. Professionally, he is a management consultant, leading a growing consulting company as its Managing Director in the San Francisco Bay area. Favorite quote: “You cannot always oblige, but you can always speak obligingly; instead of searching for others’ faults, search for your own faults yourself; uproot them, throw them off.”

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We warmly welcome Ahimsa and Ritesh into the YA team with Geetha and Sunil, and pray to Bhagawan for showering His blessings, guidance, and love. Loving Sairam and here’s wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!