Our Mission
SAAN serves to engage and educate ourselves and the greater community to promote social justice with a diverse and inclusive South Asian lens. Our programming aims to explore the intersectionality of identity through creative expression and community engagement. We are committed to raising social awareness, demonstrating solidarity, and striving towards collective liberation.
How We Achieve It
Through numerous events throughout the year, SAAN aims to raise awareness of South Asian and social justice issues on campus and beyond. SAAN follows its mission by hosting collaborative events with other organizations, creating open spaces for dialogue, and providing avenues for activism, among many other activities and events.
The Central Planning Team
The Central Planning Team (CPT) consistently crafts fresh and creative approaches for carrying out SAAN’s mission. Our 8 committees each oversee a different aspect of the organization that supports SAAN's ambitions. Through immense collaboration, the Central Planning Team successfully hosts year-round events and the annual conference.
Preethi Kumaran, Director
Sahana Nandigama, Programming
Isratt Alam, Marketing
Easheta Shah, Community Organizing & Relations
Sunjana Chalasani, Finance
Ami Suresh, Small Groups
Mahnoor Imran, Director
Sadia Islam, Programming
Roshni Mohan, Marketing
Om Shah, Community Organizing & Relations
Sana Kumar, Finance
Not Pictured: Iman Qureshi, Logistics
Raheem Ahmed, Programming
Priya Ganji, Marketing
Sruti Ramamoorthy, Logistics
Palak Srivastava, Community Organizing & Relations
Srijani Sengupta. Small Groups
What We Do
Each of our committees plays a vital role in ensuring that we operate at our highest potential so that we can provide enriching experiences for our campus and community audience.
Directors
Directors oversee the collaboration and execution of each of the other committees, ensuring that the Central Planning Team is functioning to its full potential. They act as a resource and provide guidance to every committee, and facilitate and encourage communication within the Central Planning Team. In doing so, they constantly re-craft the organization’s vision and help the organization carry it through.
Programming
Programming chairs are responsible for planning SAAN’s annual conference. They implement Central Planning Team's vision by reaching out to speakers and designing workshops. Their aim is to create a conference that appeals to a diverse array of participants interested in social justice.
Logistics
Logistics chairs ensure that SAAN operations run smoothly and efficiently. They know what needs to happen, when it needs to happen, and where it needs to happen. They are responsible for coordinating the details of SAAN’s annual conference as well as organizing and managing events and workshops throughout the year.
Community Organizing & Relations
Community Organizing & Relations chairs plan dialogues and workshops that explore intersectional identities and encourage collective action across communities. Their role is to make social justice knowledge and awareness more accessible to students and cultivate learning and growth for the Central Planning Team. They also maintain and extend SAAN’s relationships with academic departments, alumni, and organizations on and off campus.
Marketing
Marketing chairs creatively communicate SAAN's visions through a variety of media and shape the way others see SAAN on campus all year. They transform SAAN's goals into something physical and tangible by visually conveying the ideas of the Central Planning Team.
Finance
Finance chairs are responsible for creating an overall funding strategy for the year and managing SAAN’s finances. This includes applying for grants and acquiring sponsorships from businesses around the community.
Small Groups
Small Groups chairs are responsible for recruiting, selecting, and training a team of facilitators for the annual conference. They help facilitators develop basic facilitation skills and promote a passion for social justice through a series of trainings throughout the year.
Small Groups
Small Group Chairs
Srijani Sengupta
Ami Suresh
Our Facilitators
Our facilitators were selected in October 2022. Since then, they have had bi-weekly trainings where they worked on honing in skills in flash facilitation and group dialogue in preparation for leading discussions at our annual SAAN Conference.
Amber Syed
Abhishek Menon
Nikhila Anand
Dhruv Thakkar
Fatema Dohadwala
Harini Byraju
Sumedha Kanumuri
Mohammad Azeem Khan
Nidhee Reddy
Nuraiya Malik
Omaima Uddin
Parvathi Nagappala
Anjali Prachand
Rida Qureshi
Sai Ghantasala
Samedha Gorrai
Shameena Shahzad
Vidya Silai