As juniors Nathan Liu and Yash Sharma strolled the streets of downtown Saratoga in recent years, they realized how many interesting new businesses and ventures have emerged.
They then hatched the idea of inviting some professionals in varied fields to share their experiences with students and turning the idea into a club.
Named Inspire Future America, the club aims to show students what aspects can improve their lifestyle and help them explore different career paths. To achieve this, the club invites speakers with unique careers to give powerful insights to enrich students’ lives with possibilities they may not have thought of before. Last semester, for example, sleep specialist Tony Masri was invited to discuss the benefits of sleep and its correlation to productivity.
For Sharma, the key thing with the club’s speaker series is to distinguish itself from the Wellness Center events, which primarily focus on mental health, career paths and social issues. The talk with Masri was hosted in collaboration with Sources of Strength Club, who helped advertise the event and hosted the three week sleep challenge afterwards, but most events are distinct from the Wellness Center.
“Normally, the current meta about sleep is, ‘Oh, sleep is good.’ But since we’re a club that really wants to elevate the students, what we were thinking was, ‘How can we use sleep to help students get to the next level in terms of academics?’” Sharma said.
The club has been brainstorming an upcoming event on nutrition that involves inviting a dietitian to discuss the healthiest snack options to consume throughout the school day. Officers have been working to email school administrators for permission to distribute food to students, as well as reserving time in the Student Center for a presentation.
To recruit a speaker to come, the club usually calls and sends out numerous emails to local specialists. When the club was planning an event in the fall, they had only one out of the 30 people they contacted agree to the event, the sleep specialist, as most either had a schedule conflict or did not respond.
Because the speaker series is centered around students’ lifestyles and well-being, unlike traditional guest speaker series, the club emphasizes the interactive aspect — offering taste-testing for healthy snacks rather than a college-style lecture.
Both Liu and Sharma hope to expand club membership, as currently, there are only five members. In addition to Liu and Sharma, juniors Jack Dong, Mridhula Vudali and Lucy Zhang work on advertising, recording and preparing interview questions for the event.
Besides the typical guest speaker series, they also work towards giving back to the community. The club recently hosted its MLK Day of Service, where student volunteers made survival packs for those affected by the Los Angeles fires. The 20 students who participated packed 167 survival packs, well over the club’s initial goal of 100.
In the future, the club hopes to present at nearby high schools and local libraries.
“It’s really inspiring kids to be like, ‘Oh, you can do that. You can be that person,’” Sharma said. “There’s a lot of big things that we can do with organizations that are successful, and it’s just about working and bringing high quality events that really elevate the student experience.”
