Question:  Describe your connection to rural America

Answer:

Growing up, I was fortunate to have parents from diverse backgrounds who shared a love of travel throughout the Midwest and Western United States. On these road trips, I was exposed to different cultures and communities across rural America. I saw the different ways they interacted and depended on the rural landscape for their livelihoods. Two of the most memorable included, the Hopi people of the Southwest and Scandinavian communities in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Additionally, my parents’ educational backgrounds and hobbies exposed me to homesteading ethics and systems thinking about my neighborhood and family history to the rural landscape of Minnesota. My high school geology, botany and ecology courses all taught me to first try to understand the landscapes on which communities are built. From there, you can understand the relationship people have had with that landscape that shapes who they are today. Throughout my travels, I have also found the stories that have been the most meaningful and enriching to me have been those of communities in rural Minnesota.  

Question: How do you lead and create change in your community and how can your community better support rural women?

Answer: 

At the end of my graduate studies, one of my professors gave me a beige laminated card with the following quote on it:

“One of the great things an organization can do is to help people give voice to their dreams and provide the means by which people come together to create something greater than themselves. It is the gift of leaders to release the aspirations of others.” -James Champy, Leader to Leader, 2000.

This quote sits on my shelf at work and has been a motivational statement for me throughout my career. Because of it, I have sought out organizations to work for that I think exemplify this idea. In my work day to day, I try to provide support and resources to others on their leadership path within their communities. This includes leadership in communities of interest and communities of place. I think communities could do a better job of supporting rural women on their leadership journeys, by:
(1) Providing and supporting the development of STEAM educational pathways for BIPOC girls and young women,
(2) Developing marketing and purchasing co-ops for BIPOC women owned-businesses; and
(3) Encouraging and voting for BIPOC women for civic leadership positions.

Question: Who or what has been your biggest inspiration?

Answer:

My mother passed away just as I was becoming a teenager so I would have to say my father, Niteen Bhattacharyya, has been the most influential inspiration in my life. He’s an entrepreneur who emigrated from India to pursue better economic opportunities for himself and his family. Despite the challenges we have faced, he has continued to support my ambitions while not always fully understanding them.

One of my science teachers in middle school, Mike Endres, was always supportive. He challenged me to think about astronomy and earth sciences in new ways. Later on, when I was working for a PIRG after having been abroad for a couple of years, I canvassed his house. He remembered me and encouraged me to run for public office. At the time I balked at his suggestion, but his role as a supportive educator and emphasis on civic duty, is a memory touchstone I draw on in my current work.

A little later in high school, I also started volunteering at the Science Museum of Minnesota. There, I met Ruth Ladwig who was a floor manager in the anthropology hall in the old museum site in downtown St. Paul. She first trained me in experiential education programming that highlighted beadwork, natural dye recipes, and bread making methods shared by cultures worldwide. She and I continue to connect, share stories and seek common threads in the diverse cultures that thrive in Minnesota.

Each of these individuals have taught and continue to teach me that it’s not the end goal that makes life worth living, it’s the connections and experiences you have along the way that make it so precious.