When I get depressed about the future and the state of the world, I want you to listen to this podcast episode. Meghana Gunturi is an enterprising 16-year-old who runs four clubs, is a full-time student, and has successfully launched an international nonprofit. Join me and Meghana as we talk about how to leverage the power of Gen Z, how nonprofits can start to work with Gen Z, and what the heck you do with influencers.
This was a delightful episode and it made me a little less anxious if the future is in the hand of Meghana and her generation.
To learn more about Meghana’s nonprofit: www.neurodiversityhorizons.com/
Follow on Instagram: www.instagram.com/neurodiversity_horizons
Quote from Meghana: “We genuinely believe that there is a lot to be changed in the world, and that age is really just the number”
Episode Transcript
RHEA WONG 00:06
Welcome to Nonprofit Lowdown. I’m your host, Rhea Wong. Hey, podcast listeners. This is Rhea Wong with you with Nonprofit Lowdown. Today, I have a very special guest, Meghana Gunturi, who is a junior in California.
RHEA WONG 00:19
And today we’re going to be talking about tapping into the power of Gen Z. So Meghana actually emailed me out of the blue, and I was so impressed with this young lady that I had to invite her onto the pot. So Meghana, welcome!
MEGHANA GUNTURI 00:32
Hi, yeah! Thank you so much for inviting me. It’s an honor to be here.
RHEA WONG 00:36
Well, I know you said you are a longtime listener to the podcast. So before we jump into all of the details about your generation. Tell us a little bit about yourself. And why is it that you reached out to me?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 00:48
Yeah, so well, I am currently a high school student. And I am very involved with my academics and my campus. I’m president of four clubs. And I reach about 400 people on our campus just through my clubs. But I really wanted to start branching out even outside of school.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 01:07
And at the end of 2021, I filed for a nonprofit, my nonprofit neurodiversity horizons. And with this nonprofit, I aim to make the world a better place for neurodiverse people, which is like autism, dyslexia, ADHD, and a lot of stuff like that. And I really didn’t know how to grow it or where to start.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 01:27
It just seemed like a really overwhelming process. My heart was in the right place, but I did not know where to start at all. And so I kind of started listening to people who have done this for a long time.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 01:38
People who might be able to offer any advice, and I came across your podcast, and all your guests are people who have overcome certain barriers. All your guests are people who have really, really inspirational stories to share.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 01:54
And through listening to their lessons and their accomplishments, I was really inspired first of all, and second of all, I was able to put my head in the right place to grow my nonprofit.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 02:06
And so from there, as far as accomplishments and milestones, we now have 22 International chapters and eight countries that have reached over 10,000 people with our social media website and events and have an outreach of 275,000 people, and eight divisions of our nonprofit, and even have an amazing board of a little over 20 people.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 02:29
And I even got into hosting events based on the advice that I received from the podcast. And we hosted a summer program with over 80 accepted members joining from all over the world like Singapore, Korea, and India. And yeah, so I really was able to gain a lot of insight on how to positively impact the world in a more streamlined manner.
RHEA WONG 02:55
That is awesome. And how old are you again?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 02:58
16
RHEA WONG 02:59
That’s incredible. You’re 16. I don’t even know if you can drive yet. But here you are launching this international nonprofit. It’s so inspiring. So tell us a little bit about your nonprofit journey. I mean, I know you’ve been doing this for a little while.
RHEA WONG 03:12
What are some of the most valuable things you’ve learned about running a nonprofit, either from my podcast or just doing it or other sources that you found?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 03:20
Yeah, so one of the biggest things I learned through your podcasts and resources as well as other collaborations and people I’ve learned from was perseverance.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 03:31
So you know, like listening to other leaders share their stories, I got a little glimpse into the value that fighting past obstacles and barriers can have on the success of a nonprofit.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 03:41
And this also kind of leads me to another lesson, which is that challenges are inevitable and will occur regardless of how good your intentions may be.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 03:51
But it’s important to be upfront about these challenges, I think we need to eliminate the idea that it is embarrassing to have like a month where your followers are at an all-time low or a time where your funds aren’t so high.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 04:02
It’s okay to have like challenges and obstacles. But it’s important to be upfront about it. One thing is that I used to take it as a threat to my leadership to have bad months or to have challenges or lack of participation.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 04:14
But through your resources, and also my own lessons I learned along the way. I quickly learned that sharing the problems openly with my board with donors and more got me more support than help than hiding it and considering it embarrassing.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 04:29
So definitely communication is key as keeping people updated on what’s going on for my sake and for the nonprofit’s sake.
RHEA WONG 04:37
I mean, Meghana that is just such a wise lesson that you’re learning at 16. That’s really going to be helpful for you as you continue on in your career to talk a little bit about your fundraising because as you know, it’s a nonprofit low down, and we like to talk about fundraising. What was your strategy for fundraising and how have you gone about it?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 04:55
Yeah, so one of the things I did was I posted on In our social media about fundraisers that we had, and I posted about a project that we were doing called Operation autism comfort, which is where we aimed to create therapy kits for autism and send them to people all across the world.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 05:15
But of course, that does require funding. So we started a GoFundMe page and posted about it on Instagram. And it received quite a bit of support and traction by posting TikToks about it posting Instagram post stories, and by sharing it through DMS with other people.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 05:30
And we were able to gain a lot of traction and a lot of donations. And on top of that, we did do some grant applications in which our nonprofit and social media campaign came in handy for establishing credibility, especially with the age in age playing a factor in our grant and application.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 05:49
And through that, we were actually able to send out 120 Autism therapy kits to places like Australia, and South Africa, wellness centers, and all types of like colleges and autism schools. And so definitely social media played a huge role in our fundraising.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 06+:07
And also just working with other people working with team members, and helping others fundraise will also give you good connections in terms of having them help you fundraise for your own projects.
RHEA WONG 06:18
So I also just want everyone listening to you to hear this. So you are 16 years old, you’re a junior in high school, you go to school full time, you’re running for different clubs, and you’re raising money for this nonprofit. Do you sleep? How do you do all of it?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 06:34
Yeah, so honestly, my nonprofit work doesn’t really feel like work, because I really, really enjoyed doing it. So school is the hard part. And then I can kind of unwind by doing this type of work. It’s kind of like reading, other readings seem like it is not a fun thing.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 06:51
And it’s like, it’s not like watching TV or something it a lot of people consider a stress relief. So that is kind of like what my club leadership and nonprofit leadership are like, to me.
RHEA WONG 07:02
The energy of a 16-year-old, I wish I could bottle it up. Wait. So before we get into the other details about your generation, plus a little bit about why you started this particular nonprofit. I know you have a personal connection to it. So I think that’d be important for folks to know.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 07:16
Yeah, so I have a younger cousin who, prior to receiving her diagnosis, had a lot of mannerisms that resembled autism. And unfortunately, my family members did not really know about autism or did not know what it was.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 07:30
And of course, she didn’t have a diagnosis to back it up either. And so it just ended up in a lot of really toxic behavior kind of punishing her for things that weren’t her fault. And she was only like four or five years old at the time.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 07:43
And so she just ended up facing a lot of toxic behavior. And I saw that as a four-year-old or five-year-old, she was going inward and not able to communicate her problems. And I felt like that was the opposite of what adults in her life should have been doing.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 07:57
And so once I kind of told them that it’s like, it’s okay if she doesn’t want to do a certain thing. It’s okay, she doesn’t want to hear a certain sound or watch a certain show like it just because it’s considered the norm in the household doesn’t mean that she has to follow it.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 08:12
And through that, they took her to a speech therapist, and from there receive her diagnosis of autism. And from there, the family realized kind of how bad their behavior was.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 08:24
But it was only after they realized that she had autism and kind of like this seemed like a medical diagnosis to back it up. And so it kind of dawned on me that the lack of awareness that people can think differently was causing a lot of problems.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 08:40
And that the only reason she received support was that her family had a medical diagnosis or something to attribute the behavior to. And so I really wanted to figure out a way to first raise awareness that neurodiverse conditions exist because they didn’t even know that it was a thing that she could have been experiencing.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 08:58
And then I also wanted to create the idea that it’s okay to not be exactly how the everyday person that you see is it’s okay to maybe not be so good at math, but be super good at English, or maybe to not be good at math or English, it is totally okay to be thinking differently from people in your everyday classrooms.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 09:18
And that we don’t need to go out of our way to make lives more difficult for people who already are struggling to have their voices heard in society. And so that was definitely my personal connection to it.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 09:32
And taking advice from podcasts like this, and also reaching out to people I knew who were retired and running through nonprofits, and their experience helped me grow my passion and mindset into an actual change.
RHEA WONG 09:47
Very cool. So they’re gonna folks like me, I’m Gen X, you know, we have Millennials but you are Gen Z, which is sort of funny to say but what is it that you think that people who are a little bit older, shall we say, should Know About people of your generation?
RHEA WONG 10:06
Because what I’ve noticed is that your generation seems to be much more vocal, much more socially activist-minded, and much more open to diversity. But tell me, in your own words, what do you think we should know about the people in your generation?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 10:23
Yeah, definitely! I want adults to know that Gen Z is born and raised and social, political, and economic change.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 0:32
And that is what we’re used to. For example, with COVID-19, protests, movements, and so much happening, our generation is already ready to take on some of the world’s biggest problems.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 10:43
We already grew and grew up in such unique circumstances. using myself as an example, I missed my freshman year of high school to COVID. But these unique circumstances led to the beginnings of my desire for change.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 10:55
For example, with the lack of hospital visits that non-COVID patients had, I went out of my way to create my own app, which is a machine-learning model trained to recognize skin diseases.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 11:07
And I kind of created this for people who aren’t getting access to hospital visits, because it was flooded with COVID patients. So these unique circumstances were my norm.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 11:16
And so I would attribute a huge part of my identity and leadership that Gen Z is raised to the circumstances that we’re in many Gen Zers have started initiatives led clubs lead global change, and spoken on huge platforms, for example, like Greta Thornburg.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 11:33
And that is because that is our norm, we grew up in societal change. And with protests, like BLM, it is our norm, to see that on a daily basis. And so kind of going out of our way to start an initiative is really not that new is difficult to us. So that is definitely something I want adults to know.
RHEA WONG 11:53
Yeah. And it also seems to me that your generation is digital natives like you have not existed in a time before there wasn’t the internet. You are very comfortable, I assume with social media platforms, TikTok, and so on, which is really different than, say, my generation because I think I was in high school when the internet came along.
RHEA WONG12:13
So as nonprofit leaders are listening to this and thinking, you know, Gen Z has so much to offer, what are some of the top five tips that you might offer to nonprofit leaders about how to tap into the power of Gen Z?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 12:28
Yeah. So my first tip would be to reach out to student like lead organizations. And I don’t mean this in the way that they’re going to be able to donate 1000s to your organization, or that their nonprofit will give you a huge leap and attention.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 12:43
But their passion is really unmatched. And a lot of us don’t do this for a resume line or a popularity boost in society. We genuinely believe that there is a lot to be changed in the world. And that age is really just the number.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 12:56
So a couple of nonprofits I know for example stem up for youth, which is who the founder is currently in their undergrad and is an alumnus at my high school, and her nonprofit reached over 300,000 kids and brings STEM education to underprivileged kids in Southern California area.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 13:14
Another division of that is gear up for youth, which was also started by high school alumni at my school, and has reached over 13,000 underserved girls in many different countries to close the gender gap in education.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 13:28
Another example is deep waist, which is a technology company with a mission to provide fast, accurate, and low-cost waste classification, which was started also by a high schooler.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 13:39
Another example is everyone deserves stem, which is helping to expose free scientific opportunities to children around the world who the founder is also doing their undergrad now, but started in high school.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 13:51
Also, my nonprofit and social media campaign stands for neurodiversity, and my nonprofit neurodiversity Horizons has reached a lot of people and has started many chapters, and has worked with everyone from ages four to 40.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 14:05
And so these are just a couple of examples of how middle and high schoolers have made huge changes. And I think that anyone from Gen X, or Millennials with a little bit of research can find hundreds of more nonprofits that are led by people under 18.
RHEA WONG 14:22
So that’s the top tip 1, which is to find organizations or movements already led by youth. What are some other tips?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 14:31
My next tip is to realize that collaboration is mutual. Although the student-led nonprofit has something to offer.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 14:37
It is important that the collaboration goes both ways and that adults allow their experiences and resources to grow the student-led nonprofit leading to the phenomenon I’ve called for the past couple of years ko elevation.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 14:50
So my third tip is to explore websites and Instagrams Gen Zers. Take a lot of time to work on Instagram’s website aesthetic and make sure hear that the information is all presentable and available just through the digital presence.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 15:04
So make sure to look at any online resources as Gen Z takes their digital presence and digital footprint really seriously. My fourth tip is to have idea sessions with any Gen Z nonprofit, if there’s something about Gen Z is that we are part of several school clubs, and nonprofits, and we really want to be involved.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 15:24
But just age and experience hold us back. So even if we aren’t the most funded nonprofits compared to an adult who had been doing this for years, our ideas and creativity are rare and rare to find, especially for an adult who only works with adult-led nonprofits.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 15:40
Examples can be the neglect of virtual spaces and digital presence reaching younger audiences, for example, elementary school, creating engaging curriculums for what kids like nowadays, and so much more. These are really valuable to adult lead nonprofits.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 15:55
For example, with myself, I worked with three separate companies this past summer to create a discord space for their nonprofit, which allows them to reach a much larger platform. And they also were not familiar with discord or virtual spaces altogether.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 16:11
And to me, I single-handedly created it for them and helped their nonprofits and their companies a lot. And my fifth and final tip is to not feel like the underdog when working with a student-led nonprofit.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 16:24
It’s important not to feel superior. And this is a problem I face a lot. For example, missing scheduled zoom meetings showing up 15 minutes late to scheduled events, replying months after an email that was sent during an ongoing collaboration, and a lot more. I think whatever you expect from a Gen Z, nonprofit, and adult nonprofits should reciprocate as well.
RHEA WONG 16:45
So you’re saying that people are not responding to you?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 16:50
Yeah, so sometimes we will schedule events, and they have no problem missing it and like attending 30 minutes late, and I guess it’s because they feel like it would be my duty to just wait there for them.
RHEA WONG 17:04
I see. Like not taking you for granted, which I think is kind of a basic, mutual common courtesy. So Meghana, as we think about the leadership of your generation, what can nonprofits do, particularly as I think, you know, your generation, in a short amount of time, we’ll start to enter the workforce.
RHEA WONG 17:27
And we’re gonna have to start thinking about that next generation of leadership, what can nonprofits do right now to start to build that leadership pipeline?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 17:36
Yeah, so similar to how I mentioned earlier, reaching out to nonprofits, and just having a casual discussion of what both of you have to offer. So just like scheduling, a zoom call or a phone call just to bounce ideas.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 17:49
And if both parties are enthusiastic about the collaboration, something definitely great will come out of it. And by offering that advice, as someone who has been in there for years and has been through a lot more than a high schooler, or a college student can that advice can take a motivated student a long way.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 18:09
So another thing like that would be offering advice similar to this nonprofit, or similar to this podcast.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 18:16
This podcast along with others, such as social entrepreneurs aware of foreigners, though we are for a good podcast, and also general advice that I’ve received from partners such as the neurodiversity network, the unicorn Children’s Foundation, any RC after-school clubs, the Tillys Life Center, elementary school teachers, and so much more, have offered me so much of valuable advice just over a zoom call in terms of growing and expanding receiving funds and reaching out to donors.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 18:47
And this was extremely helpful since I’m young, my nonprofit grew very organically from the beginnings of a passion to some after-school clubs to some curriculums to websites. But the advice that adults have offered me has taken me a long way.
RHEA WONG 19:05
So it sounds like as you’re talking about your tips that technology plays a big part I heard you mentioned Instagram I heard you mentioned TikTok. What other platforms should adults be thinking about in order to reach folks in your generation?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 19:20
Instagram, I cannot emphasize how much Instagram is a huge part of our lives, there are reels, there are posts, there’s algorithms, hashtags, repost stories, and so many ways to easily reach 1000s of accounts.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 19:35
This is the most used platform by our generation and has a lot to offer to any organization. So by just following Instagram’s protocols in the hashtags, you’re bound to end up on someone’s discover page.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 19:47
And from there, the app really takes off with any message that you’re trying to spread. It’s how a lot of movement spreads such as me to BLM despite posting about it, a lot of popularity already, and fundraising funds have been gained through that app. Another avenue is TikTok.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 20:05
This is also extremely popular. Although there are too many videos on the app to guarantee popularity and too many people trying to I guess blow up on the app, it is still extremely useful and people will find you while they’re relaxing.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 20:21
And just like trying to spend some downtime on their phone, everyone really loves to spend a lot of time relaxing. So you’re definitely bound to end up on someone’s page. Another thing is, I will refrain from using things like Facebook and Twitter, and other platforms that are not commonly used by our generation because the growth might become big.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 20:39
It will definitely not reach Gen Z, to the extent a nonprofit might desire. Social media is really important and should not be neglected by anyone, regardless of age. And if a nonprofit needs help to maximize social media potential, collaborating with the Gen Z nonprofit can definitely help.
RHEA WONG 20:57
Okay, let’s talk about those right, because I actually, my main social media platform is LinkedIn, which I know is for old people, which is fine, but if I were, say, an executive director, and I said, okay, Meghana, I’m I want to make my Instagram page, really exciting for Gen Z, what are the kinds of things that you might advise me?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 21:19
The biggest thing is posting what you want as a message as your regular posts, but then finding other avenues to have your account itself reach more people.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 21:29
For example, with my social media campaign, although our educational posts may not be picked up by the algorithm, as well as a real or a TikTok that we repost posting that tick tock gets our account on a lot of people’s pages, and gets us a lot of followers.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 21:45
And then from there, they’re able to see the educational posts. So kind of dividing up the popularity aspect from the actual message aspect is really important. staying consistent is the hardest part of social media.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 21:58
And the most important part of social media is staying consistent by consistently posting consistently having stories consistently keeping up with how many times a week you post your reels to post ratio. These are things that are the hardest part about maintaining social media but will make your page the most valuable it can be to any type of positive message.
RHEA WONG 22:23
So break that down for me, Meghana, what is the difference between educational posts and different posts? Because it sounds like those are two different things. So what would be the other post if it’s not an educational post?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 22:35
Yeah, so for example, a campaign the aim is to take down the negative stigma, which realistically can only be done through posts that are very informational, and has a lot of words on their pictures with long captions, talking about bullying.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 22:49
And stuff that really will not keep the attention of a casual scroller, and that is where the followers become stagnant. But when we post things like memes, our tech talks, and things related to stuff like autism, and neurodiversity.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 23:04
We’re able to reach the neurodiverse crowd and have them follow our page. And then from there, our posts naturally end up on their feet just by the fact that they follow us.
RHEA WONG 23:13
So Meghana does that mean that executive directors are having to post memes and reels and do dances, this is what you’re telling me.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 23:20
They kind of do it in a different way from what I’ve seen in that they do sponsorships with younger creators and have them promote their products so that way, their page can stay as professional as possible.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 23:31
They kind of reach out to young Instagram, popular people on the app, they reach out to tick talkers who are popular on the app, and they’ll have them endorse a project product like Invisalign, or Amazon, so that way the actual Invisalign or Amazon page can see very professional.
RHEA WONG23:48
So what I hear you saying are engaging influencers. But have you seen that being done successfully for nonprofits I’ve seen it with products, but I haven’t necessarily seen it with nonprofits?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 24:01
I have definitely seen it with nonprofits. The only thing is that the nonprofits would not be able to pay for a sponsorship, or it would not be ideal to pay for the sponsorship, which is where the value of the nonprofit plays a big role.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 24:17
So the Good Samaritan part of your nonprofit will eventually get people to endorse the project. So for example, when we were trying to get funds for Operation autism comfort, free, we reached out to a fellow influencer that we knew had 230,000 followers, another 200,000 on TikTok, and 230 on Instagram.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 24:40
And so we reached out to him and we asked him to promote this project because we were really, really trying to just raise funds for the expensive nature of autism therapy. And from there he was able to promote the project and is a big reason why we received a lot of funds for that.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 24:57
So it’s definitely possible for nonprofits, but making sure that you are familiar with your mission and know what you’re doing it for would play a bigger role than just trying to pay a certain amount of money for someone to stand on an Instagram post with the product.
RHEA WONG 25:10
And what I hear you saying is you didn’t pay for it, because I think a lot of people are a little nervous about like, I don’t want to pay an influencer, too. So how do you know which influencer might be the right one for you?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 25:24
Yeah, so the ones that we have connections with. And that’s where the algorithm aspect of social media plays a big role. And that’s where that’s growing your account from followers.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 25:35
And making sure that you have a lot of impressions matters a lot because from there, you’re able to reach more popular creators, and eventually, verified people will start following you. People with a lot of presence on various other apps like tick tock, and even Facebook, are able to recognize your account and from there, they’re more likely to promote your project.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 25:56
And honestly, the connections that we have in terms of growing our account, and then reaching out to them after they’re familiar with our account has been a foolproof method. I have yet to see it fail in terms of once they’re familiar and they know your cause they are likely to promote a project because for them, they will look at that good Samaritan aspect of it more than the product placement and the brand deal look of it.
RHEA WONG 26:21
Oh, my gosh! Making it sounds exhausting. Are you available for hire, or not wanted to just hire you to do their social media?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 26:28
I guess.
RHEA WONG 26:30
Yeah. All right. Well, Meghana, we are at the end of our interview. So the question I like to ask guests is if you had a billboard, well, maybe in your case, if you had a TikTok or an Instagram to communicate anything to the world, what would be on your Instagram?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 26:44
Alright, so my message would definitely be if you have an idea, if you have a passion to spread, don’t hesitate from doing it. Regardless of whatever barriers you feel are holding you back, whether it be a financial standing or a racial standing.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 26:59
I, myself, face a lot of bullying in regards to racial-related bullying, and kind of battling against that taught me that really nothing can hold you back. It’s really just your mind at the end of the day telling you what you can and can’t do.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 27:12
So if you can fight against that urge to skip out on a project or hold back on a passion, you will be a lot more successful, and you’ll be able to see all your dreams come to a reality.
RHEA WONG 27:24
That is beautiful and Meghana, your parents used to be so proud How have they raised a kid like you?
MEGHANA GUNTURI 27:30
Honestly, they are trying their best. I am a very overactive kid and have always been ever since I was a kid, I was always jumping off the wall. So they’ve just tried their best to keep me free-spirited and happy. And that has a lot to do with my character.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 27:47
I have a lot to owe to my parents for letting me be myself and keeping me true to myself, and to always remember, like their beginnings and my beginnings, and I have definitely a lot of my character and success to owe to them.
RHEA WONG 28:00
Oh, that’s lovely. Well, if your parents are listening, I hope they are. Congratulations, you’ve raised an exceptional young lady. And we’re very excited to see what the future brings and all of the ways that you’re going to be changing the world, making the if people wanting to get in touch with you as Instagram the best way.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 28:16
Instagram, yeah, definitely Instagram is the best way. As well as our website. it has a lot of contact information that is direct to me. It is neurodiversityhorizons.com, reaching out to our email, reaching out to our Instagram, and reaching out to any board members is a really, really great way to get in touch with me.
RHEA WONG 28:34
Great. And we’ll make sure to put all of your information in the show notes for folks who are listening. But in the meantime, Meghana, thank you so much for coming on and sharing it. I think you are by far and away the youngest guests that we’ve ever had possibly the most energetic.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 28:48
Thank you so much for having me. It’s such an honor to be here. And I am really thankful for this opportunity.
RHEA WONG 28:55
Well, I just want to share with folks that you got invited to the podcast because you sent me an email. It was a cold email, and you pitched yourself and I just want to say especially for all of the young women of color out there, don’t be afraid to pitch yourself.
MEGHANA GUNTURI 2911
Yeah, definitely putting yourself out there is really the only way that you can gain some respect and gain people’s attention. And don’t be afraid to be the manager be the boss, you know, tell people when they’re doing something wrong because that is really how you’re going to survive with big ambitions.
RHEA WONG 29:28
I love it! Be the boss, everyone. You heard it from Meghana. You heard it here first people. Alright, Meghana, I know it’s late. I know you have some homework to do. So thank you so much. And have a great week, everyone.
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