In sharing and exploring the story of where and who she is from, Girl Engagement Specialist Sanjana Kantayya talks about unification in diversity. She goes on to discuss how every community, as a “table,” ought to have seats for everyone.

Sanjana was born in Rockford, Illinois to two resilient immigrants from Tamil Nadu, India. At the age of 5, Sanjana moved with her family to Kogi State, Nigeria where they served at ECWA Hospital Egbe, a Christian missionary hospital. Frequenting Tamil Nadu and Kogi State throughout her childhood, Sanjana was raised in strong Yoruba and Tamil communities, rich with a culture of family. She studied International Studies, Arabic Language and Culture, and Bioethics at Loyola University Chicago. While at Loyola, she conducted an undergraduate research project in Rome and Beijing, studying Traditional Chinese Medicine and its accessibility and utilization for the Chinese diaspora in Rome. Sanjana first encountered Chicago’s refugee resettlement community in 2013 by interning at Pan-African Association and Forma FGC. In 2015, she joined GirlForward as an intern, and now serves as the Girl Engagement Specialist at GirlForward Chicago, where she promotes the health, safety, social-emotional learning and overall personal growth of adolescent girls resettled as refugees in Chicago.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx