About Us
When Sarala Pandey came to the United States in the 1990s, she was one of five Nepali families in Central Ohio. In 2007, the forced migration of Bhutanese-Nepali refugees led nearly 40,000 to Central Ohio, and Sarala saw her community in need of the same support she received. This is where Step Ahead Tech’s story begins.
In response to the sudden influx of need, the established Nepali community rallied to support new arrivals— helping with translation, teaching day-to-day survival skills, and providing other forms of resettlement assistance. Sarala describes the struggles of refugees adapting to their new homes and lives, describing the kind of help they need. “When I went to their apartments, it was like 90 degrees outside, and they didn’t know how to turn the AC on. They didn’t know how to roll out the windows,” she says.
By 2017, it became evident that the refugee community faced generational challenges, evident in suicide and drug use, school dropout rates, lack of productive direction in establishing comfortable lives for families, and under-engaged elderly populations. A particularly pressing issue was seen in the communities’ young women, who were left with limited professional or educational aspirations, often due to the cultural expectations of early marriage and domestic responsibilities.
Sarala and her co-founder and daughter Ashtha Singh decided to address this issue by creating a tech camp for the young Bhutanese-Nepali women in Columbus. “We looked at our community and said, okay, what resources do we have? I was 15 years old, so the biggest resource I had was time,” Ashtha says. Sarala’s background in IT inspired the pair to provide a space where these girls could learn about technology and open doors to potential future career paths. The question of how to connect with and motivate the communities’ young women was a difficult one— these children are constantly receiving conflicting narratives from the adults in their lives, whether from family networks or educational leaders, about their own educational and professional options. To encourage engagement, Ashtha, at only 15 years old, proposed running the program herself with the goal of adapting a peer-led approach that might resonate better with young participants.
Our first camp, held in 2018, was a test of community collaboration. The effort to provide food and financial support was supported by local restaurants and tech companies. Throughout the week, female industry professionals engaged with the students and, by the end of the week, had inspired the girls on the myriad of possibilities ahead of them. Despite initial fears of low turnout, 22 girls gathered in a Columbus State Community College classroom to expand their horizons. Three high school seniors expressed interest in enrolling at Columbus State, marking the first tangible success of the program. “I think that was the first moment we had the thought like, oh, I think we’re onto something,” Ashtha says.
From there, Step Ahead Tech continued to grow. Encouraged by the success of the first camp, 2019 saw an extended two-week program with an added focus on tech entrepreneurship. In addition to the summer camp, monthly seminars were introduced to maintain engagement with students year-round. During the 2020 pandemic, Step Ahead Tech still stayed involved in helping their community despite being unable to hold in-person events, organizing a mask drive that produced and distributed 400 masks to over 70 households. While this was outside of our original mission statement of our organizations, Step Ahead Tech was eager to show up for our community. “The goal, at the end of the day, is to serve the community in any way we can,” Ashtha says. As we continued into 2021, Step Ahead Tech resumed its programing, adapting to the ongoing pandemic by holding sessions at community centers and ensuring safety through rigorous testing. During this time, the organization also expanded its focus to include gender-inclusive programs and collaborated with various after-school programs in Columbus.
Post-pandemic, Step Ahead Tech has revitalized its partnerships with local schools and educational facilities and returned to its two-week program format, emphasizing both generalized STEM opportunities and collaborative projects. Additionally, we introduced certification opportunities, such as CPR training, to provide students with tangible skills. “If we can make a difference in one kid’s life, that’s enough for me,” Sarala says. “When you put one kid in college, that means you’re helping three generations because, in this community, they rely on one another. Our belief is that change comes from your home, from your backyard. When we want to make change, we start in our own communities.”
In the future, Step Ahead Tech is eager to grow through increasing program partnerships with other nonprofit organizations, expanding into different states, and continuing our focus on providing education to underserved and underrepresented youth.