Portfolio of Aashish Panta

I am Aashish Panta, a sophomore at Swarthmore College from Kathmandu, Nepal. I am pursuing an honors major in Economics and honors minor in Mathematics. Besides my majors, I enjoy taking classes in Political Science, Peace and Conflict and Dance. Outside of classes, I spend time watching TV-series, cooking, spending time with my friends and going to Philly.

During my gap year after high-school, I was a project coordinator for the Maina Devi Foundation, an NGO working for sustainability and environment conservation, where I mobilized volunteers in health care waste management. It was a great learning experience to coordinate with a team, organize clean-up events, and work with communities. These experiences taught me valuable skills in project management and leadership, and I gained a deeper understanding of the importance of community engagement.

In fall of 2022, my first semester at Swarthmore, I joined the Inclusive Excellence Fellows Initiative and ever since, I have been working to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) at Swarthmore College as project manager of “Inclusion at Work: Diversity in Careers”. The project, spearheaded in Career Services, seeks to provide opportunities for students to assess their values and goals around careers and ensure their career readiness. The project has enabled me to implement events and practices that can bridge the gap between knowledge of careers and students from diverse backgrounds. My experience as IEFI fellow has profoundly shaped my understanding of what it means to build a welcoming and inclusive community.