Team
Budding Leaders was founded in 2017 by Rohan Goel and Sarang Deshpande. Since then, it has grown with over 30 volunteers.
Budding Leaders has now transitioned to a new leadership team in 2021. We, Sonali Goel, Reeti, Tanish and Rohan Goel, hope to continue what was started to the best of our ability, while taking budding leaders to new dimensions.
Sonali Goel
CEO
Sonali Goel
CEO
Reeti Bandyopadhyay
CTO
Sonali Goel is a Junior attending Lynbrook High School in Cupertino, CA. Sonali has been engaged with Budding Leaders since 2017. She is Captain of Junior Varsity Hockey team at her school.
She has a passion for community work and art. Sonali received a Presidential Award for Volunteering Services in 2020 and 2021 and has been helping out with different nonprofits since elementary school. Sonali conducted Virtual Art Classes for elementary school students on origami, draw, paint, etc. in 2020.
Sonali donated several fidget blankets to Senior centers. She organizes twice-a-month drives to collect, package and distribute essential items like hygiene kits, food, clothes and blankets to unhoused in Bay Area.
In her free time, she loves to play field hockey, softball, soccer, draw/paint, and play with animals. She is excited to be lead Budding Leaders team and continue to support current initiatives and start new ones.
Reeti is a senior at Irvington High School, and the CTO of Budding Leaders.
Reeti is passionate about technology. She developed hugely successful program for elementary and middle school students to learn coding using simple steps and through game development.
Having been an officer of two clubs and an editor at a local magazine, she has had lots of leadership experience. In her free time, she likes to play the piano and read coming-of-age novels.
Tanish Chaterjee
Events Director
Rohan Goel
CFO
Advisor & Founder
Tanish is a Junior attending Milpitas High school. Tanish has always been connected to the community since an early age - whether it was volunteering for a non-profit organization (Pashchimi) every year to assist with event management, or be it creating digital promotional teasers for local fundraising events, or volunteering to manage website for the local PTA chapter at his high school - Tanish has always felt a pride in giving back to the community
After playing competitive soccer for 8 years, Tanish now referees competitive soccer games for the city, in addition to being a soccer coach for boys under 10 team for city of Milpitas. Musically talented Tanish plays 3 instruments (piano, flute, and guitar) - he plays in his school Jazz band, Marching band and a local Indian music band in many concerts and functions.
Engaged with budding leaders since summer of 2021, he has conducted virtual training sessions during COVID times to support outreach/run the program. He has been instrumental in setting clear goals and objectives for the group to accomplish, and assisted the group to come up with an action plan, and timetable on how to execute the program during COVID times
In his free time Tanish loves to read and play his flute to unwind.
Rohan Goel is a Senior attending UC Berkeley majoring in Data Science and Statistics. Rohan started to become involved in community leadership in the 8th grade, and his passion has flourished ever since. Rohan founded Budding Leaders in 2017. He conducted leadership classes in Calabazas Library, West Valley Library as well as libraries in Sunnyvale and Cupertino.
After joining UC, he has been remotely engaged in Budding Leaders activities and advises team on partnership and engagement. Rohan also manages all documentation for Budding Leaders.
In his free time, he likes to watch football, eat, and hang out with friends. Rohan is ecstatic about making a meaningful impact in the Bay Area through Budding Leaders.