Approximately 250 moms filled the seats of non-profit Chai with Moms’s inaugural conference “MomsConnect 2024,” at the Palo Alto Events Center on Sept. 22. The conference showcased a 5-part speaker series, in which experts addressed topics ranging from suitable parental behavior to helping children discover their passions during high school.
Chai with Moms was founded by Bay Area moms Aparna Seethepalli (Class of ‘21 alumnus Akshar Sarvesh’s mom), Shauli Chaudhuri and Somedutta Sengupta in 2023. The non-profit aims to equip their target audience — mothers — with skills to navigate the challenges of raising children in an academically focused environment. After about a year, it has grown into a robust network of more than 1,500 moms — primarily South Asian — across the Bay Area.
Seethepalli first noticed the need for such a platform when her daughter, who graduated from the school in 2016, began navigating college applications without adequate support.
“[Shauli, Somedutta and I] felt like it would be nice if there was a support group for parents in a community with so much academic rigor and competitiveness,” Seethepalli said.
The three co-founders frequently host small chai (tea) gatherings for mothers seeking support. Discussions range from topics like parent-child dynamics to evaluating the services of local college counselors. However, through a large in-person gathering like MomsConnect 2024, their goal was to build a stronger sense of community and leverage knowledge from admissions experts on a larger scale.
The school’s guidance department chair Brian Safine participated in the “A Successful High School Journey” panel alongside independent admissions counselor Judith Lee, mentorship program Curious Cardinals founder Alec Katz, Zenith Tutoring Founder Grayson Giovine, educational consultant Millie Roy and former Stanford Admissions officer Irena Smith.
During the panel, Safine’s aim was to demystify the often complicated U.S. college system to parents who grew up in a different background.
“The default can be: ‘I am going to advise my student the same way I was raised,’” Safine said. ”It is helpful to have a professional opinion from a background of helping thousands of students instead of relying solely on a student’s family.”
The conference also showcased other panels such as “Pathways to College” exploring alternate routes beyond the high school to a top 20 college pathway. Panelists included psychologist Nida Mirza, writing coach Rheanna Bates, clinical social worker Sonia Kakkar, Evergreen Valley Community College professor Sravani Banerjee and independent admissions consultant Raja Ashraf.
The “College-Goers” panel brought the students’ perspective to the forefront of the conference’s discourse. The panel comprised seven current college students and recent graduates; among them were SHS Class of ‘21 alumni Aarya Pandit and Akshar Sarvesh, who discussed the lessons they had learned throughout their high school and collegiate education.
“I wanted to communicate that true success can be found when [you are] intrinsically motivated to pursue a passion,” Sarvesh said. “All I can and should do is my best, and, therefore, it shouldn’t matter what others are doing, as long as I pursue my interests.”
While Pandit said his experiences at SHS fostered personal growth and motivation, he also emphasized the need to dismantle the stigma around communication between parents and students.
In the future, Chai with Moms hopes to continue to reshape the conversation around parental support and readiness in education by providing scholarships for kids’ higher education and hosting more events to inform mothers across the Bay Area.
“We want to educate, support, and inspire moms to take this journey by choosing hope over fear,” Seethepalli said.
