The Millennium Campus Network

Ajay Palaparty District Director of Outreach, MCN New York City

Ajay Palaparty serves as the District Director of Outreach for MCN New York City. Ajay is a junior at New York University majoring in Political Science with a minor in Economics. He first became interested in international development when he attended the inaugural Millennium Campus Conference in April of 2008 at MIT. Since then, Ajay has gained volunteer experience in rural South India and has completed internships with various non-profit organizations and USAID. As the District Director of Outreach for the New York City cluster, he is working closely with Tannis Thorlakson, the MCN's Director of District Coordination, to network student organizations in New York. He is looking forward to creating a strong network in the city, especially in close proximity to so many great potential NGO and business partners. Ajay is also involved in the University tutoring program as a volunteer coordinator. He will be a Federal Service Student Ambassador in the fall, a position through which he will be contacting students across the New York area to let them know the benefits of working in the federal government and help them to find jobs and internships. Ajay's travel experiences include trips to Brazil, India, Western Europe, Japan, China, and Australia.

In his own words...

My favorite places in my district are...
My favorite places in my District are numerous, for the simple fact that it's New York. I love hanging around the St. Mark's area (really good Japanese restaurant there called Sharaku and a lot of great bubble tea places). I also love walking around and jogging in Battery Park.

I respect...
Within the area of development work, I have high respect for Dr. Catherine Hamlin, a 2004 Nobel Peace Prize nominee. She and her husband have devoted nearly 50 years to providing free reconstructive surgery to African women and girls suffering from obstetric fistula, a devastating medical condition. The hospital she started also provides free clothing and hot meals to these largely ostracized women, giving them a fresh start and a chance at a new life. I find her work inspiring because it is simple and yet has such a huge and lasting impact on the community.

I believe that students working together can...
I believe that students working together can work to raise awareness on their campuses of poverty, especially in those educational communities where we take so much of what is available for granted like laptops, large numbers of faculty, even functional buildings. They can also contribute significantly to direct work in developing countries and can form strong bonds with their partner communities, encouraging others like themselves to become involved in service-learning opportunities.

Which Millennium Development Goal are you most interested in and why?
I am most interested in the goal of universal education. I believe education to be the most powerful form of investment and can determine the future and relative success of a society – it gives children a larger picture of the world, a chance to become successful. Yet despite its appeal in the long run, even in developed countries, it is often overlooked and underfunded. Personally, I also have the most experience with education as a volunteer option, involved in tutoring programs here in the States and in rural communities in India.

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