Theme: 2020 Reflection and Reconstruction

2020: A pandemic, protests, political corruption, natural disasters, economic decline, isolation, and loss.
In their talks, speakers will discuss local and global issues of 2020 that have the threat to reoccur in the future, how & why an issue could potentially reoccur, and what we as a society and as individuals can do to prevent its recurrence.

California High School
9870 Broadmoor Dr, San Ramon, CA 94583
San Ramon, California, 94583
United States

Aleeza Zakai

Student

Aleeza Zakai, a sophomore at Cal High, loves to spend her time doing many things. She enjoys writing and crafting short films. She recently released a short film featuring her peers and their experience in the Covid-19 pandemic. In her free time, Aleeza plays and composes her own music. She has a passion for all things relating to the arts and loves to explore all mediums. In addition to her passion for the arts, Aleeza loves to take risks and broaden her horizons. In the future, Aleeza hopes to keep all her hobbies abundant in her life as well as live life to the fullest.

Amol Dhaliwal

Student

Amoljit Dhaliwal is a senior at California High School. He is a wrestler, climate change activist, and most importantly, an entrepreneur. Dhaliwal has worked on various endeavors spanning from an AI-based spotter for weightlifters to specialized equipment for dogs. He is also the Co-Founder & CFO of the Financial Literacy Education Organization (FLEO), an organization that aims to educate youth about finance and its importance. FLEO has helped him foster a passion for finance, and he plans to pursue it in college.

Keertana Sreekumar

Student

Keertana Sreekumar is a 9th grader in California High School. Her passions include writing and all forms of visual arts. Her hyper-realism and surrealism acrylic paintings have been displayed in the Hayward and Endangered Species National Gallery. Two years ago, she founded the Youth Art Committee of San Ramon, a city-certified board of 20 youth artists set to paint state murals in the coming year and participate in national exhibits to enrich her cities' arts programs. Her goal is to create an environment where art is shared and understood for all its bewildering qualities.

Kira Sano

Student

Kira is a freshman in college who has volunteered for the American Cancer Society for the last five years, starting with her high school’s organization and working her way to becoming the National Campus Leadership Team’s Youth Chair. Through this past year, she has also found the opportunity for the organization to adapt during this difficult time taking on projects like creating websites, Minecraft servers, virtual events, and fundraising campaigns and organizing the restructuring of the high school club organizations.

Madeline Harris

Student

Maddie Harris, a senior at California High School, is an intern at a nonprofit educational organization and is passionate about the arts. She has also worked as an assistant stage manager and senior portrait photographer. Maddie has been involved in has performed in fifteen musical productions over the past ten years and has been a member of the California High School Chamber Singers and improv team. She has created her own short films and documentaries throughout high school and received two State Awards of Merit. Maddie enjoys gardening, going on drives, and spending time at the gym in her free time.

Nicholas Harvey

Student

Nicholas Harvey, a junior at California High School, has enjoyed learning about history since before he could read. His latest historical endeavor is serving as the director of the San Ramon: 2020 project, collecting COVID-19 oral histories from the San Ramon community. Harvey currently works at the Museum of the San Ramon Valley and as an intern at a local middle school. He hopes to excite others about the interaction between history and education as part of this event. In his free time, Nicholas enjoys hiking and writing for the school paper, The Californian.

Sabina Zafar

Politician

Sabina Zafar was inaugurated into office in December 2018 and is currently serving her first term as a Councilwoman. In November 2019, she was appointed as the Vice Mayor by a vote of the Council and Mayor. She is an accomplished technology leader, community volunteer, mentor and mother. Sabina is wholeheartedly committed to giving back to her city. She has dedicated her career and personal time to improving our community, empowering women & girls to pursue STEM careers, helping make San Ramon the center of technology and innovation in the Bay Area, and promises to ensure transparency and inclusion in our local government for all residents. In addition she is passionate about engaging our city's youth in civic service, she has promoted this initiative through her summer internship program

Ted Lempert

Politician and Activist

Ted Lempert is the President of Children Now, a whole-child research and policy organization focused on transforming children’s advocacy. Children Now coordinates The Children’s Movement of California, a network of 4,000+ diverse organizations statewide, including direct service, business, parent, civil rights, and community-based groups. The organization has offices in Oakland, Los Angeles, and Sacramento. Mr. Lempert is also a Lecturer in the Political Science Department at UC Berkeley. He represented Silicon Valley in the California State Assembly and served on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. He also was an attorney with Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton. Among his many awards, Mr. Lempert was named “Legislator of the Year” by numerous leading education groups, including the National Association of Educational Service Agencies, California Association of School Administrators, California Community College Faculty and the UC and CSU Students Associations.

Tejes Srivalsan

Student

Tejes Srivalsan is a senior at Dougherty Valley High School as well as an aspiring entrepreneur. He is the Co-Founder & CEO of the Financial Literacy Education Organization (FLEO), whose influence has spread across five continents. During the last two years, he has led a team of 50 to teach personal finance to over 5100 students. He is also a National Winner in Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow competition where he and his team built a sensor that could detect if a wildfire is brewing and notify the nearest fire department. This won them $100,000 in technology for their high school. Additionally, he is passionate about innovation, social equity, and Manchester United.

Tiffany Yu

Advocate

Tiffany Yu is the CEO & Founder of Diversability (rebranding disability through community), the Founder of the Awesome Foundation Disability Chapter, and the host of TIFFANY & YU (the podcast). She also serves on the San Francisco Mayor’s Disability Council, appointed by San Francisco Mayor London Breed in 2019. Yu was a Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit in 2020 and served on the Leadership Committee for San Francisco’s future Disability Cultural & Community Center (the first municipally-funded Disability Cultural Center in the country). Yu has been named one of the "100 most influential Asian Americans of 2017," one of "100 visionary leaders," and a "women of influence" honoree. She has been featured in Marie Claire, Forbes, the Guardian, the Ford Foundation, and The Wall Street Journal, and have spoken at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, TEDx, and Harvard.