Alumni
Deya Maldas
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Deya’s drive to serve stemmed from her biyearly visits to her dad’s village in rural India and the realization of her educational privilege. After the acknowledgement of her privilege, she began to ask herself why she received such an advantage. She came to the conclusion that her life of opportunity is one hundred percent attributed to chance. Because of the accidental academic advantage that she has, she wants to serve and create this privilege for others. In order to do this, Deya strives to use her educational privilege to engage in leadership that enables others to be successful in their fieldwork.
During Deya's time at Vanderbilt, Deya found service opportunities that aligned with her service motto. This brought her to become involved with Students Consulting for Nonprofit Organizations (SCNO), She’s the First: Girls' Education in the Developing World, Sanlaap, and Nissan North America.
This past year, Deya served as a project manager for SCNO and led a consulting project for social enterprise Project 615 to help them restructure their inventory management system. Additionally, as President of She’s the First, Deya worked to spread girls education awareness throughout Vanderbilt and fundraise to send girls in Guatemala to school. Additionally, through the graciousness of the Nichols Humanitarian Fund, Deya interned with Sanlaap, an anti-sex trafficking nonprofit based in Kolkata, India. During her eight week stay there, she worked with advocacy and fundraising efforts. Her daily tasks included outlining a college campus chapter program, organizing an international conference for sex trafficking awareness, and conducting field research in the remote Sandarbons area with the U.N. Anti Human Trafficking Program.
Deya is starting her senior year by completing her Ingram Summer project. She is interning with Nissan North America in Franklin, Tennessee and working with the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Department there. During Deya's time at Nissan, she plans to edit the grant application that the CSR Department uses to create a stronger partnership between Nissan and the nonprofits. Deya also plans to continue her involvement with SCNO and She's the First through her senior year.
Because Deya attributes her life to pure luck, she has the motivation and drive to serve with the opportunities that she feels she received by chance. Deya cannot express enough gratitude towards the Ingram family. She knows that the Ingram Scholarship Program will continue to shape her views on service and she is excited to see the program’s impact on her future work.