About me
Hello everyone, my name is Tanvi Ajantiwalay, I work as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington. Thanks to my parents, I always received a quality education throughout my childhood. After I completed my bachelor’s degree, my parents encouraged me to pursue post-graduation since they are firm believers in continuous learning at every point of life. As I entered the PhD program, I realized how lucky I am to be able to obtain a high level of education, which some children in India can only dream of. Due to the ever-growing population and widespread poverty in India, a large number of families can’t even afford basic primary education for their children. I firmly believe that each and every child deserves to have access to education and hence I was searching for ways to make a change to this situation from the United States. In this process, I got connected with Asha Florida. As I moved to Washington for my new job, I was very happy to find the Asha Seattle chapter where I can continue volunteering and fundraising. With Asha, I am actively participating in raising funds that would be utilized to educate underprivileged children in India through various projects.
This year to meet my fundraising goal, I am running the Mt. Rainier Half Marathon on July 16th. My goal is to fundraise min $500 which would be of great help towards paying the school fees and/or buying educational supplies for the kids in our projects in India.
My Running experience
I have been active in sports and athletics since my childhood. I was an advanced-level roller skater in school and played cricket for my college. Due to this, I was used to warm-up exercises and running. Running for a longer duration and distances was something I never tried before. Running races in the US seemed to be the perfect opportunity to test my capacity as a runner. As I started training with Team Asha Florida about 5 years ago, I obtained excellent guidance from our coaches and gradually improved my running. I have run several 5, 10, and 15km races all over the US. Over a year ago, I started running half-marathons (21km) and also took up mountain running. I hope that with so much practice, I will be able to complete this Half-Marathon and raise the required funds. I feel privileged to be a part of this noble cause and hope you all will help me achieve my goal.