Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Srinidhi Moram, Dileep Kotireddy, and Nidhi Gadekar. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Nidhi / Srinidhi / Dileep, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s go back in time to when you were an intern or apprentice – what’s an interesting story you can share from that stage of your career?
Young Athlete Aid began after we (Srinidhi and Nidhi) were inspired by an internship at the Emory Rehabilitation Center during our freshman and sophomore years of high school. There, we observed Dr. Amy Leake, an amazing physical therapist. While we shadowed her, we got to see her dedication to her patients and their care through the time she spent communicating with them and helping them recover from injuries. This is how we were inspired to create Young Athlete Aid to raise awareness about sports medicine.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Young Athlete Aid is a student-led non-profit organization focused on promoting awareness about sports safety to young athletes as well as providing safety equipment. Our focus is on underserved communities and schools that may not have access to essential resources. We (Srinidhi and Nidhi) started Young Athlete Aid after a healthcare internship and partnered with Dileep, who was also interested in sports medicine. So far, we have collected many sports supplies and given them to local organizations for distribution, including water bottles and equipment. We also promote awareness for safety through social media, specifically through our Instagram (@youngathleteaid). We believe that our passion for sharing our knowledge with local schools and youth is what makes us special, which is done through school visits and social media. Additionally, we have secured large donations, including a first batch of 55+ supplies and a second of 89 donations, which we are very proud of. We hope to continue growing and making an impact on the communities around us!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
As a student-led organization, we have had many challenges throughout our journey. When we were starting, we struggled to gain awareness and participation from schools, athletes, and donors. This made it difficult to raise donations and help serve the community. But, we persevered, and with support from some amazing people, we have been able to start to achieve our mission.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
We believe that the most important thing to have as a student-led organization, no matter the mission, is a good support system. Without the support of Dr. Leake and her patients at Emory Rehabilitation Center, as well as our high school’s HOSA chapter, we would not have been able to achieve what we did. Additionally, support from our community has been essential to our organization, especially the local schools that allowed us to educate their students. The support we have received since starting has allowed us to expand our organization to what it currently is, and allowed us to begin to achieve our mission.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://youngathleteaid.square.site
- Instagram: @youngathleteaid
- Other: Email: [email protected]