Meet the Team
Meet the dynamic team of students determined to revolutionize STEM education.
Varun Srivastava
Co-Founder & President
Varun Srivastava is a senior at Redlands High School in Redlands Unified School District. He has a multifaceted personality with talents and interests ranging from science & engineering, sports, politics, technology, but the issues that concern him the most are related to children, their health, and education. He won the Best Academic Boy trophy at Mariposa Elementary School, silver medal for San Bernardino County Science Fair and has scored perfect scores on California standardized tests for both Math and English in 2016, 2017, and 2018. He has won the 2019 Congressional App Challenge and the 2020 WWDC Student Swift Challenge. He enjoys playing soccer, cricket, tennis, playing the saxophone, traveling around the world with his family, programming, and learning about and working with technology.
Abhisri Narayanan
Vice President
Abhisri Narayanan is a Junior at Redlands High School. She is on the varsity tennis team and varsity mock trial team at her high school. Abhisri has a black belt in Tang Soo Do (Korean Martial Arts). She is a Bharatanatyam dancer for nine years and has completed her Arangetram. Abhisri also actively engages in community service including Loma Linda Lopers, raising funds for Hurricane Florence relief, volunteering at the Loma Linda public library, and is an instructor for weekly coding workshops. She received the Kaura 4.0 GPA award and rotary scholarship in 8th grade. Abhisri is the current vice president of math club in high school. She restarted STEM Club in high school and is the president. She won the 2021 congressional app challenge with her team and was a panelist for Invention Con at USPTO. Abhisri also presented at the ISTE conference in New Orleans, CA STEAM Symposiums, and the CUE conference
Samar Hyder
Communications Director
Samar Hyder is a sophomore at the University of Redlands. She has exceeded her standardized tests, won a silver medal at the San Bernardino County Science Fair, and was awarded the Director’s Award for Orchestra at Moore Middle School. Samar dreams of equality and educational opportunities for every child and is thrilled to be able to take part in exposing students to STEM opportunities. She wants to have a career in medicine because she wants to be able to help others. She loves reading, playing her piano and violin, swimming, traveling to new countries, and fashion.
Dexter Xu
Secretary
Board of Directors
Vidhi Srivastava
Co-Founder & Director
Vidhi Srivastava is a sophomore at Cornell University's College of Engineering, planning to major in Electrical and Computer Engineering. She started school as an English-Language Learner but was soon reclassified as proficient in English. She has won multiple PTA Reflection awards for visual arts, won the silver medal for San Bernardino County Science Fair, received the National Champion of Computer Science Award from CODE.ORG, the Principal’s Excellence Award at Moore Middle School, Presidential Gold Award for Academic Excellence, and has scored perfect scores on California standardized tests several years. She enjoys Bollywood dancing, playing the flute, sketching, reading, traveling around the world with her family, and trying new cuisines. She is very passionate about STEM education and wants to expose other students to a multitude of STEM opportunities that awaits them while challenging the barriers that exist in STEM fields for girls and under-represented students. She plans to continue her role as a STEM education champion to improve educational outcomes for all students.
Vikas Srivastava
Executive Director
Deepika Srivastava
Director of Student Engagement
Vikas Srivastava is a Business and IT Consultant with over 20 years of consulting experience. He is an expert in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and has worked in the Utilities, Oil & Gas, Local Government, and Transportation industries in India, Singapore and US. He also has experience in the implementation of Enterprise Asset Management, Work Management, Emergency Response, Disaster Recovery systems and their integration with GIS. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, a Master's degree in Remote Sensing and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Vikas believes that a nation’s ability to stay competitive depends greatly on innovation and staying at the forefront of technological advances. He wants to use his expertise to inspire and support the next generation of engineers, scientists, and innovators. He cares a lot of about the environment and likes to spend his time on learning about advances in recycling, environmental protection and reversing the effects of global warming.
Deepika is the STEAM & Innovation Coordinator at Redlands Unified School District in California. She is well known for conceptualizing, planning, and coordinating K-12 STEM programs/pathways in collaboration with community partners to ensure student achievement for the entire spectrum of student needs and strengths to close the opportunity gap for historically underrepresented minorities, with a special focus on girls, multi-language learners, and students with disabilities. She has presented at various state (CA STEAM symposium, CASE, CSTEM conference), national (CUE, NCTM), and international level conferences (ISTE 2020, ISTE 2022, ISTE 2023). In 2020, she received the C-STEM Administrator of the Year Award from University of California, Davis Center, and is also is the recipient of ISTE certificate for Artificial Intelligence Explorations in 2021 and NCWIT Inland Empire Affiliate Educator of the year award. She has a Master of Science degree in Educational Administration & Physics, Masters diploma in Computer Applications, and a Single Subject Teaching Credential in Math, Physics, Chemistry, Introductory Science, Computer Science, along with an administrative credential and over 17 years of professional experience as an educator in the United States and India.
Dr. Shazia Hyder
Director
The Next Step...
Join us in our mission to ensure equitable STEM opportunities for all students.