Communications Committee
The Communications Committee is in charge of all written communications from GENup. Some of their duties include writing press releases, open letters, website content, blog posts, and editorials. They also run the GENup podcast and manage email communications.
Chief Communications Officer
Thy Luong (she/her) is a senior at Notre Dame High School in San Jose, California. She is extremely passionate about youth civic engagement, LGBTQ+ rights, and storytelling. In her local community, she serves as San Jose D4 Youth Commissioner and Santa Clara County's Youth Poet Laureate, and her policy goals often revolve around giving underserved students more educational and civic opportunities. She is the founder of Learn4Justice, an international youth-led organization aimed towards teaching students humanities skills through a justice lens. She's also a massive proponent of international exchange and is a NSLI-Y Mandarin and Stanford China Scholars program alumni. In her free time, you'll find her obsessing over vast fantasy sagas, crocheting things she'll never wear, or playing guitar very badly.
Director of
Communications
Mariam Ndao (she/her) is current junior at Dr. Tj Owens Gilroy Early College Academy, pursuing an Natural Sciences AA. She has always been interested in hearing various experiences of people in my community and learning how she could take action to better her community. She serves as an executive member on the Mt. Madonna YMCA’s Youth Board, planning and executing events to promote youth engagement and community support. Additionally, she sits on the boards of numerous organizations that aim to bring awareness to prominent social issues and community support. She hope to bring intersections between race, healthcare, and education to light through this initiative. In my free time, she love to read anything fiction, write, dance, and watch Netflix!
Director of
Communications
Catherine Yang (she/her) is a senior at West High School in Iowa City, Iowa. She first became involved in educational reform after participating in student efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic to improve equity throughout her school district. She later expanded on this interest by serving as a state delegate to the World Affairs Seminar, a youth initiative centered on understanding national and global subjects through exploring student perspectives. As a recipient of the Department of State's National Security Language Initiative for Youth scholarship, she’s passionate not only about language learning, but also about enhancing her communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills by expanding her perspective and understanding of current affairs. Additionally, serving as captain of both her school’s debate and robotics teams has helped Catherine become aware of local and national equity issues, driving her to improve her community through local efforts to boost student accessibility in education. In her free time, Catherine enjoys music, creative writing, and spending time with her family and friends. Catherine joined GENup due to its effective, youth-led advocacy and is thrilled to help impact educational reform on a national level through GENup’s community empowerment and policy development.
Director of
Communications
Arpita Shanbhag (she/her) is a freshman at Emerald High School in Dublin, California, and has always strived to make a change and give back to her community. From a young age, she has always been interested in education, curious about what the world can offer her. Arpita wants to make a meaningful impact and give everyone the resources they need, one child at a time, and that is why she joined GENup, in hopes of providing all of the public school students equal education across the state. She is also part of a high school that only ~350 freshmen attend as it just opened and she has made it her goal to foster an inclusive environment where everyone receives equivalent opportunities for their future. One of her biggest aspirations is to see more women in the STEM field and she hopes to expand education in this field to them, to join her in her future majoring interest. In her free time, she participates in various clubs that her school offers her: Speech and Debate Club and DHS CodeHers Club, and is a treasurer of the Science Olympiad Club and EHS Girls4Sports Club. Outside of school, she is apart of VEX Robotics, a Workshop Facilitator at STEMpathize, and a tutor at Learn To Be, imparting free education to vulnerable children across the nation. She has over 100 volunteer hours across her volunteering organizations and is a dancer at heart. Ultimately, Arpita hopes she can make a difference in California through GENup.