My history
I was born in India and I moved to Roanoke, Virginia when I was two. It would take me nearly two decades before I became a fully naturalized citizen of the United States. My immigration story was a determining factor in many of my childhood and young adulthood experiences. My parents saved up money for us to spend the whole summer in India every three years with my mom’s parents. Those were some of the fondest moments of my childhood, spending time with my mother’s parents in Tollygunge, Kolkata. However, it was always a stressful process for my mom to get our Visa stamped and approved to re-enter the United States. By middle school I stopped visiting them in India and spent a period of 8 years not seeing my maternal grandparents in-person since. Unfortunately, my grandfather passed away during the early COVID-19 pandemic and I was unable to see him again. More recently, I have been able to go see my grandmother every year. She survived the Partition last century and she is one of the strongest people I know.
Just before high school, I moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and started attending Fox Chapel Area High School. Some of my favorite memories in high school were being in the math club and becoming president of the club my senior year and president of the National Honor Society, being in the marching band freshman and sophomore years where I played on the drum line during home and away games and playing the keyboard during competitions, as well as presenting and hanging out with other Pennsylvania kids at regional and state science fairs, and also taking AP Music Theory my senior year.
As of January 2021, I am a graduate of Stanford University with a BS in Management Science and Engineering, with a focus in Operations and Analytics, and a minor in Music. Halfway through undergrad, I adopted an Alaskan Husky from the San Francisco SPCA. I named her Future and trained her to be my service dog. Together, we have flown to travel destinations or back to my parents’ house countless times, and we have traveled to and explored many US states and National Parks together. She is my best friend, and we have been together for 7 years; our relationship is a defining part of my adulthood.
My mom’s father passed away on July 7, 2020 after falling 13+ times and incurring mild dementia, and since then his wife, who is my maternal grandmother, has been living largely alone in Kolkata – a city with a strict lockdown during the pandemic. When it became safe for most people to travel, I reunited with her after so many years.
In 2020 during the pandemic, I adopted Mort, my sweet Siamese. A year later, I adopted Gaucho, my sweet Australian Shepherd. Future, Mort, and Gaucho truly get along well together! @futuregauchomort on Instagram
In March of 2024, I graduated with an MS in Business Analytics from the UCLA. During that time, I co-founded a legal tech startup Luri.ai and continued to build out the recruiting technology at CardinalTalent.ai. Most recently, I’ve partnered with Proyect 555 International to build a platform (right now at Dioscurity.org) to mobilize communities towards prevention and raise awareness about child sexual abuse.
roopasom 