TEEN ADVISORY BOARD
Interested in joining the T.A.B.?
Applications are due every March. Please email info@alivecenter.org for more information or to apply.

Liv Lankisch
Class of 2023
Saint Francis High School
President
Learn More About Liv
Olivia (Liv) Lankisch is currently a Senior at Saint Francis High School. and is the President of the Teen Advisory Board. As president she is planning and running weekly meetings and leading communications across the team. Liv co-led the Alive Upcycling Club which focused on repurposing clothing and other materials. Through the sessions they focused on fun while instilling confidence and creativity in the kids who participated. Liv is an avid reader and runner, a member of the National Honors Society, and someone who enjoys sewing, working at Starbucks, and spending time with friends. Liv has a passion and heart for the kids at Alive who are quieter and need a little more guidance. She is excited to engage through community volunteering, leadership training, and planning new programs.

Patrick Baldinger
Class of 2024
Naperville North High School
Vice President
Learn More About Patrick
Patrick Baldinger is a junior at Naperville North High School. He will graduate in the year 2024. He likes running, ping-pong, coding, building model rockets, golf, video-games, and more! He is learning to code with Java as he plans to pursue a career in programming. He is in Cross Country and Track. He has built a lot of model rockets and plans to build more. He believes that he can greatly help out with the STEM program at Alive. He can contribute his building and programming knowledge, creative thinking, he can help with 3D-printing, and he can help advertise events. He is very excited that he is a part of the Alive Center Teen Board for a third year and is greatly looking forward to it. He has gone to the Alive Center in the past and loves what they do. He likes how it is a great place for teens to hang out for free and help other teens. He is very thankful for being on this board and hopes to make a difference in our community. As the Vice President of the board he hopes to help pass on his experiences to the other members in order to help them grow as a person and as a part of the board.

Grey Bauer
Diversity Committee Co-Lead
Class of 2025
Metea Valley High School
Co-Secretary
Learn More About Grey
Grey is a sophomore at Metea Valley High School. This is their second year on Alive’s Teen Advisory Board, they are on the Diversity and Inclusion committee. They enjoy leading their program Alive with Pride which is for teens in middle school who identify within the LGBTQ+ community because it creates a safe space for the teens to be themselves. When Grey isn’t at Alive, they enjoy doing things such as listening to music/singing, taking walks for some good photography opportunities, baking, and hanging out with friends! One thing they look forward to this upcoming school year is ASL 2, which will help them for their future career in social work. They’re very excited to see what their second year on TAB has in store for them and continue to create safe spaces for teens who need it!

Saaya Patel
STEM Committee Co-Lead
Class of 2023
Neuqua Valley High School
Co-Secretary
Learn More About Saaya
Saaya is a senior at Neuqua Valley High School. She is very passionate about helping others. As a high school student, Saaya loves to help inspire younger students to engage in STEM fields. She has the opportunity to prepare for and instruct a STEM class for middle school students; Saaya’s responsibilities consist of weekly lesson preparation as well as biweekly lessons. She, too, participate in her school’s robotics team where she can collaborate with my teammates both in-person and over Zoom to develop ideas and progress with their projects. Saaya has an interest in athletics. Sports have taught her several values: leadership, accountability, respect, perseverance, and discipline. She loves to fundraise and raise awareness for the underrepresented. She is, also the vice president and past secretary of Naperville’s Juniorettes. The Naperville Juniorettes are comprised of a group of ambitious young women who help their community by volunteering, fundraising, and raising awareness. Saaya is extremely excited to work on Alive’s Teen Advisory Board to achieve the goals of inclusivity and creativity.

Nyssa Aftab
STEM Committee Co-Lead
Class of 2023
Neuqua Valley High School
Learn More About Nyssa
Nyssa is currently a senior at Neuqua Valley High School, where she is involved with Youth and Government, Girls Who Code, Mu Alpha Theta, and more. She’s deeply passionate about STEM and is excited to share her love with the community! Outside of class, she can be found tutoring both children and peers in various subjects or phonebanking for local political campaigns. When she’s not hanging out with friends or family, she likes to spend her free time painting portraits, reading novels, and discovering new music. She is looking forward to connecting with her community during her first year on TAB!

Ariha Ajmera
Class of 2025
Metea Valley High School
Learn More About Ariha
Ariha Ajmera is a sophomore at Metea Valley High School. In school, she is a member of the Robotics team, along with being involved in Photo Club. Her hobbies include drawing, playing music, and playing badminton. Ariha also loves spending time with her friends and getting to know people! She is thrilled to be a part of the Alive TAB!

Surya Teja Rikhita Baddula
Class of 2023
Metea Valley High School
Learn More About Rikhita
Rikhita is a senior at Metea Valley High School. She loves being involved in her school such as through Key Club, Principal’s Advisory Board, NEHS, Metea L.I.F.E leaders, and more! She enjoys volunteering and helping others in her community! In her free time, Rikhita also loves to go for a run or play sports such as badminton or volleyball. Rikhita is passionate about encouraging young people to learn more about STEM and its awesome opportunities! In the future, she wants to be part of the STEM field and pursue Computer Science! This is her first year on the TAB and she is excited to meet new people and be part of a community filled with aspiring people!

Abby Baldinger
Class of 2025
Naperville North High School
Learn More About Abby
Abby Baldinger is a sophomore at Naperville North High School and will graduate in the year 2025. She is 15 years old and in her free time likes to travel, play softball, sew, build model rockets, read, bake, hang out with her friends and more! At school, Abby participates in activities such as golf, badminton, robotics, humane huskies, and gourmet club. She has a puppy named Yuri and hopes to one day become a vet. She enjoys helping others and is excited to continue to help others while being part of the Teen Advisory Board. This will be her second year as part of the Teen Advisory Board, and she can’t wait to make a difference in her community.

Shreekruthi Charagondla
Class of 2024
Metea Valley High School
Learn More About Shreekruthi
Shreekruthi is a junior at Metea Valley high. This is her first year on the TAB and she is part of the stem committee. Shreekruthi is very passionate about giving back to the community as she volunteers every week at the DuPage children’s museum and the library. She plays tennis for her school team and has been competing for the past few years. In Metea, she is on the board for DECA and NEHS along with being a member of BPA, Skills USA, Math team, and Key club. When she isn’t at school or volunteering you can find her reading a book, hanging out with friends, going shipping, or working at Topgolf. She is passionate about stem and hopes to pursue a career in computer science and business. She is super excited to be part of the TAB, and she is looking forward to be part of Alive.

Aashi Dharia
Health & Wellness Committee Lead
Class of 2025
Naperville Central High School
Learn More About Aashi
Aashi is a starting sophomore at Naperville Central High School. She loves running cross country and track, swimming, and biking. Aashi competes in mini triathlons and plays in her school orchestra. She will graduate from her school of dance in the next year and loves art. Outside of her activities, Aashi loves helping others. She volunteers at the Naperville Public Library and Feed My Starving Children. She also participates in the Peers program through her school and in her student council to plan drives and other donation events. Aashi has won the Golden Eagle Award through her junior high. She also has a passion for travelling and meeting new people. She is super excited to be a part of the teen advisory board and can’t wait to join Alive!

Kayla Garcia
Class of 2023
Naperville North High School
Learn More About Kayla
Kayla is a Senior at Naperville North High School. She is on North’s swim team and is the President of North’s volunteer club, Interact. In her free time, she loves reading, jewelry making, and shopping. She is very excited to be a returning member of the Teen Advisory Board and will continue to work hard!

Shivani Jambunathan
Alive Media Group Co-Lead
Class of 2025
Metea Valley High School
Learn More About Shivani
Shivani is a sophomore at Metea Valley High School. She plays soccer for Metea and competes on the Speech Team in impromptu speaking. Shivani volunteers at organizations including Gigi’s Playhouse, Naper Settlement, and the Aurora Public Library. Shivani also works as a soccer referee. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with friends, reading her favorite books, and listening to music. Shivani is excited to be on the TAB and is looking forward to working with the Alive Center and making a difference!

Simran Kaur
Class of 2025
Waubonsie Valley High School
Learn More About Simran
Simran Kaur will be a freshman at Waubonsie Valley High Highschool. She enjoys running, playing tennis, and listening to music. Simran is also very passionate about mental health awareness and wants to help break the unnecessary stigma behind it. She is an activist that will take any opportunity to fight for change within her community. In her free time Simran also enjoys volunteering in the library and Children’s Museum. She is looking forward for her first year on the Teen Advisory Board and is excited to expand her leadership skills, raise awareness on the importance of health and wellness, as well as giving back to her community.

Azim Kazmi
Class of 2025
Waubonsie Valley High School
Learn More About Azim
Azim Kazmi will be starting his freshman year at Waubonsie Valley High School this year (2022). He is 14 years old and enjoys tennis, reading, and playing the bassoon. He is passionate about many STEM related topics and is a member of his school’s Science Olympiad and math team. He is also an active participant in his school’s student council, where he helps to make decisions to better the school. In his spare time, Azim enjoys spending time with friends and playing the bassoon. He is excited to be a part of the Alive Center Teen Board where he can showcase and teach others about STEM in an engaging and fun way. He can not wait to make a positive difference in his community through Alive!

Teagan Keane
Class of 2023
Naperville North High School
Learn More About Teagan
Teagan is a senior at Naperville North High School. She loves being a part of her extracurriculars at school which include the dance team and Orchesis. In her free time she enjoys baking and experimenting with fun new recipes. When she is not baking she can be found reading or spending time with her family and friends. She is very passionate about health and wellness and is very excited for her first year on the student advisory board. She cannot wait to make a difference in her community!

Maheen Kumar
Class of 2023
Nequa Valley High School
Learn More About Maheen
Maheen will be starting senior at Neuqua Valley High School. He is part of his school’s rocket club and Co-President of the Chinese Honors Society. He enjoys listening to music, playing video games, and hanging out with friends. He is always up to a good time at the pool and walking downtown and enjoying all the food there. His interests lie in the STEM field and his passion for it allows many others to learn from him. He wants to get younger people in his community involved in STEM-related activities in order to cultivate creativity and curiosity. He is willing to learn from the people around him and is excited for this year on the Teen Advisory Board.

Rida Majeed
Class of 2025
Waubonsie Valley High School
Learn More About Rida
Rida is going to be a sophomore at Waubonsie Valley High School in 2022-2023. She snowboards, plays Volleyball, and enjoys Taekwondo. Rida loves being involved at school through activities, such as Model UN, Math Team, Theater, Key Club, and MSA. She adores the time spent volunteering with her Girl Scouts troop and leading fun projects that help the community. In her free time, Rida can be found creating digital art, hanging out with her friends, playing violin, and reading. This is her first year as a member of TAB and can’t wait to be a part of the team!

Alicia Mathew
Alive Media Group Co-Lead
Class of 2025
Metea Valley High School
Learn More About Alicia
Alicia is a sophomore at Metea Valley High School and a musician who focuses on choral, opera, and classical music. When she’s not arranging music in a practice room or singing with the Metea Valley Madrigals, you can find Alicia volunteering with her youth-led organization, Youth4SciTech. At Metea, she’s on the leadership board for Students Count, Key Club, the Metea Valley Literary Association, and MVSSC Student Helpers, a cleaning club she created to reduce messes in Metea’s lunch areas. She is also involved in Metea Mic’d, Recorder Ensemble, StuGo, Red Cross Club, and much more. Currently, she’s a part-time content and marketing associate at STRUT Learning, an Ed-Tech company in Chicago, and she runs her own tutoring business called Twotter Girls. She’s a big philosophy and psychology nerd who is infamous for walking around with copies of everything from Huxley to Salinger. Alicia is grateful for the opportunity to work with such incredible people, and she’s very excited to be a member of TAB!

Aryanna Mong
Class of 2024
Metea Valley High School
Learn More About Aryanna
Aryanna is a junior at Metea Valley High School. She is involved in many activities such as martial arts and playing the violin in the school orchestra. Aryanna is passionate about volunteering and hopes to go into the STEM field after high school. In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, trying new foods, and hanging out with her friends. She is excited to be a part of TAB!

Aayush Modi
Class of 2024
Naperville North High School
Learn More About Aayush
Aayush is a current Junior at Naperville North High School and is excited to be a part of the Teen Advisory Board for his second year. Aayush loves to code, play sports, and explore the outdoors. He plans to pursue a career in the STEM field more specifically as a Computer Science Major. At the Alive Center Aayush loves to meet new people and interact with others in his community. He enjoys teaching others about his passion in the field of STEM through leading different camps at Alive’s STEM lab, especially the robotics camp. Outside of Alive Aayush is actively involved in activities at his school. He is the Software Lead on his school’s robotics club and plays on his school’s baseball team. Through these experiences, Aayush is excited to learn, teach, and develop this year on the Alive Teen Advisory Board.

Mark Park
Diversity Committee Co-Lead
Class of 2023
Naperville Central High School
Learn More About Mark
Mark is currently a senior attending Naperville Central High School. Mark has a deep passion for business, music, and helping others. Mark currently is in involved with multiple extracurricular activities, some including, Marching Band, DECA, Drumshow, and Link Leaders. In Marks free time you can find him hanging out with friends, watching sports, or listening to music. Mark hopes that he can help contribute to Alive this year through his positive energy and drive!

Nandinee Patange
Class of 2025
Waubonsie Valley High School
Learn More About Nadinee
I am passionate about the STEM committee because of my past experience and interest in the field. I have participated in various STEM-related clubs and activities such as Science Olympiad. I have also been a part of the Art Club, where we explored different methods of expressing art, such as in the form of pottery, printing, or collages. Through my experience in this club, I learned that there are various ways to express art which requires understanding concepts from STEM, such as different materials, different perspectives, and points of view.
Diversity and inclusion play a role in my life at school and at clubs and activities where I see that there isn’t a lot of diversity especially with fewer minority students participating in STEM. Usually, STEM-related activities under-represent girls and minorities, and I think everyone should be given a chance at STEM no matter their background. I would like to raise awareness of this at Alive Center and bring different perspectives to encourage diversity.
I would like to use my creative and engineering skills to promote diversity in the STEM field.

Audrey Pickering
Class of 2024
Naperville North High School
Learn More About Audrey
Audrey Pickering is a junior at Naperville North High School. She plays field hockey for her high school team and also plays for a travel team. She loves chemistry and biology and is on the STEM committee at the Alive Center. Some of her hobbies include embroidery, baking, doing puzzles, reading, and playing with her dogs.

Ayaana Pradhan
Class of 2023
Metea Valley High School
Learn More About Ayaana
Ayaana Pradhan is an incoming senior at Metea Valley High school who is involved in her schools magazine (The Stampede) , and online news site (MeteaMedia). This year she was her news establishment’s graphics editor but next year she will be the editor in chief of the school magazine. In her free time Ayaana loves painting, listening to music, and solving the daily wordle, crossword, and sudoku with her family. Ayaana was introduced to the Alive Center with the Art Comes Alive exhibition in which she participated and was enlightened by the display of artworks. As much as Ayaana likes creating an inclusive environment she loves being a part of one, and she is sure the TAB is very welcoming.

Avery Puglielli
Class of 2023
Naperville Central High School
Learn More About Avery
Avery will be a senior next year at Naperville Central High School. She likes history, reading, and writing. She is also part of JSA and National Honors Society. She loves to bake, listen to music and be with her friends and family in her free time. This is her first year in TAB and she is excited to be involved.

Aarna Raghavapudi
Class of 2025
Metea Valley High School
Learn More About Aarna
Aarna is a sophomore at Metea Valley High School. She plays soccer and tennis for her high school. She also really enjoys history and mythology and is on the scholastic bowl team and history bowl team at school. Aarna also volunteers as a tutor. In her free time, she enjoys reading and building things. She is on the STEM committee at the Alive Center and is looking forward to her second year on TAB!

Achint Saberwal
Class of 2023
Metea Valley High School
Learn More About Achint
Achint is a senior (’23) at Metea Valley High School. She loves being involved in extracurricular clubs such as Youth & Government, Eco Club, and various honor societies. In her spare time, Achint likes to garden, bake, grab boba from Vivi’s, and drive around with her friends. In the future, she wants to major in environmental studies on the pre law path. She hopes to one day become an environmental lawyer. She is especially excited to be part of TAB since she loved Alive’s summer camps as a child, and hopes to make summer camp memorable for all future campers!

Nidhi Sagaram
Class of 2026
Metea Valley High School
Learn More About Nidhi
Nidhi Sagaram is a freshman at Metea Valley Highschool, graduating in the year of 2026. She enjoys painting, drawing, and watching movies in her free time. In school, Nidhi enjoys being a part of theater. She notices the small problems in society and finds unique and new ways to solve them. Nidhi’s favorite subject is science and is ready to use STEM to make a difference within her community.

Ananya Sampathkumar
Class of 2023
Metea Valley High School
Learn More About Ananya
Ananya Sampathkumar will be a senior at Metea Valley Highschool. She’s involved in Madrigals, Winter Scenes, Eco Club, and on the board for Tri-M and NEHS. She also plays the veena and badminton. In her free time, Ananya likes to make jewelry, read books, listen to podcasts, listen to music, or pursue her interests in fashion and psychology. She loves to talk to others and make new friends, and is super excited to be a part of the TAB board this year!

Emily Wu
Class of 2025
Neuqua Valley High School
Learn More About Emily
Emily is an upcoming sophomore at Neuqua Valley High School where she is involved in activities such as the swim team as well as youth and government. She loves helping others and was previously a coach on a summer swim team in the Naperville Swim Conference, as well as her own year round club team. When she’s not in water swimming, she loves to cook, draw, and bike around. Emily is always looking for opportunities to explore and find her passions, and she is excited to join the Alive TAB to do the same with others.

Eunice Zhang
Class of 2023
Neuqua Valley High School
Learn More About Eunice
Eunice Zhang is a senior at Neuqua Valley High School. She is deeply interested in learning about various social issues and serves as the chapter president of Junior State of America at her school, while also being involved in other clubs such as Model UN, Women’s Empowerment, Rho Kappa, Student Equity Action Committee, and more. She has also had a lifelong passion for art, beginning drawing lessons at the age of five and taking various classes both inside and outside of school to learn how to work with different mediums. Her favorite medium to use is oil paint, and she has always admired the style of impressionism. Additionally, Eunice has led free virtual camps during her summers in high school to help middle schoolers in China practice their conversational English skills and learn more about American culture. She is excited to combine her love of teaching and mentoring with her love for art through TAB!