{"521311":{"#nid":"521311","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Student Spotlight: Q\u0026A with ISyE Undergrad Suraj Sehgal: The Importance of a Global Focus","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech\u2019s Stewart School of Industrial \u0026amp; Systems Engineering (ISyE) boasts many outstanding students involved in a wide variety of extracurricular activities. However, sophomore student Suraj Sehgal (2018) is surely one of the most remarkable. In his short time at Tech, Sehgal\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EMaintains a 4.0 GPA while pursuing a B.S. in industrial engineering, with a minor in international affairs and certificate in industrial\/organizational psychology;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EIs a Stamps President\u2019s Scholar;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EServes as vice president for several campus organizations dedicated to student outreach, building community, and human rights;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EHas taken a trip to Iceland to study renewable energy and sustainability;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EResearches with Associate Professor Jarrod Hayes in Georgia Tech\u2019s Sam Nunn School of International Affairs on the relationship between national security and climate change;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EWrites for Perpetual Change, Sehgal\u2019s regularly updated blog at \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/surajsehgal.wordpress.com\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/surajsehgal.wordpress.com\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERecently, Sehgal sat down for a Q\u0026amp;A about his internationally focused activities, his involvement with organizations dedicated to ending human trafficking, and the importance of a global perspective.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhy did you choose Georgia Tech for your college experience, and ISyE as your major? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI applied to 15 different colleges in high school and only two of them were in-state. Needless to say, I was pretty set on leaving Georgia (where I was born and brought up) to go out-of-state for college. However, the more I learned about Georgia Tech and about the different programs the university had to offer, the more appealing that it became.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI chose ISyE as my major because it provides me with a set of valuable skills applicable to almost every field. As someone who is interested in international affairs, I felt like ISyE would not only help me contribute to the field in meaningful ways but also allow me to act as a bridge between worlds \u2013 bringing together engineering and social science.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMany of your extracurricular activities involve a globally outward focus. What motivates your interest in this area?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI\u2019ve been working with efforts to end human trafficking ever since high school. With the work I\u2019ve done in this field \u2013 and any other activity for that matter \u2013 the main driver behind much of my interest has been sharing love and care with others. As I realized early on, I have been given many so opportunities by virtue of where I was born, which means the least I can do is try to help others experience some of those opportunities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETalk about your time as a Summer Scholar in the European Union Program.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe program is called the\u0026nbsp;EU-Brussels study abroad program, offered through Tech. It\u2019s a 10-week summer program led by Georgia Tech faculty in which students take four 3-credit hour classes (12 credits total) on\u0026nbsp;the European Union,\u0026nbsp;European security, EU-U.S. relations, and human rights in Europe. Six weeks of the program takes place in Brussels, Belgium, in which students live with a host family in order to get a better feel for the unofficial\u0026nbsp;capital of the EU and the culture.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe rest of the time is spent in other major cities of EU member states, including Paris, Berlin, Krakow, and Dublin. Throughout the 10 weeks of the program, we visited all kinds of\u0026nbsp;official sites including\u0026nbsp;NATO\u2019s SHAPE Headquarters, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, the U.S. Embassy in Paris, the European Court of Human Rights, and more. In addition to learning from readings and lectures, the bulk of the material came from hands-on meetings and dialogue with officials, experts, diplomats, and\u0026nbsp;policy makers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhy were you interested in this particular program?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt seemed like a wonderful opportunity to explore places that I had never been to before while also studying the European Union. To me, it felt like learning about the EU was a valuable experience, integral to being a well-informed global citizen, regardless of my major.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYou were recently a representative at the United Nation\u2019s Youth Assembly and were asked to write about the experience for the Huffington Post. Please describe the experience.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs I wrote in the beginning of the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/the-youth-assembly-at-the-united-nations\/changing-the-world-a-yout_b_9365734.html\u0022\u003EHuffington Post article\u003C\/a\u003E, there were \u201cnumerous panels, inspiring keynote speakers, and workshops with notable leaders in the fields of international development, human rights, and so much more. It was a remarkable opportunity to meet youth from all over the world engaged in life-changing work!\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGoing into the Assembly, I didn\u2019t know quite what to expect but was amazed to see just how many young people were gathered together. I met people from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and more. And it seemed like they were all involved in well-intentioned and globally minded projects \u2013 everything from creating a nonprofit addressing education barriers in a local city in Mexico to having a well-followed blog and cleaning product line devoted to helping people live a waste-free lifestyle.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI am grateful that I had the opportunity to attend the Youth Assembly, because it helped me to see how the work that we do locally at an extracurricUnular level is really part of a much bigger, global youth movement trying to make the Earth a more habitable, equal, and loving place.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDiscuss your work in the Grand Challenges Living Learning program, particularly your current project on food insecurity at Georgia Tech. \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Grand Challenges team that I am working with is called the Food Fighters. We originally entered into second semester of our first year (spring 2015) as a group of six students who wanted help address the inefficiencies of international food aid. However, we quickly realized that if we wanted to make a meaningful impact, we would have to focus our attention more locally.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne population that really caught our eye was college students. We found that unlike households or children, there was surprisingly little literature on the topic of food insecurity experienced by college students. Any study or literature review that we could find on the topic indicated that college students were at high risk of experiencing food insecurity for some period of time during their four years in college. This seemed to be true both in community colleges and universities, and happening in places around the world (found in studies conducted in Hawaii, New York, and Australia).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIf you are a student, you should not have to compromise your ability to focus on your academics and overall wellbeing simply because you are not able to get consistent access to basic nutrition. There are resources and services available for students who are having to make that tough choice between food and academics, including Klemis Kitchen, which is an on-campus food pantry. All you have to do is email \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:%20hartley@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EDr. Dana Hartley\u003C\/a\u003E or the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gatech-advocate.symplicity.com\/care_report\/index.php\/pid972868?\u0022\u003EDean of Students Office\u003C\/a\u003E in order to get access.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETemporary assistance is already available to students. My Grand Challenges group is focused on trying to address \u003Cem\u003Ewhy\u003C\/em\u003E these services aren\u2019t being used more and understanding how to \u003Cem\u003Eempower\u003C\/em\u003E students who are experiencing food insecurity to take action regarding their food situation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOne area of important focus for you is on the timely issue of victims\u2019 rights and human trafficking. What would you like us to know about your work in this area, and about the issue of human trafficking in Atlanta, as well as around the world? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEver since I was a junior in high school, I have been passionate about fighting against human trafficking.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt all started with a Community Ambassador Training held by\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.youth-spark.org\/\u0022\u003EyouthSpark\u003C\/a\u003E, a nonprofit that works to end child sex trafficking in the state of Georgia. After\u0026nbsp;learning about such a heinous\u0026nbsp;issue and becoming aware that it was such a big problem in my own state, I felt like I needed to act.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESoon after, I started a\u0026nbsp;club\u0026nbsp;in my school, worked to organize\u0026nbsp;a field trip, speakers, and fundraisers to get students engaged, and was even able to intern at youthSpark, helping them find ways to get more\u0026nbsp;teens involved.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI was excited to get started with\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OneVoiceAtlanta\/\u0022\u003EOne Voice Atlanta\u003C\/a\u003E, a student organization on Tech\u2019s campus that works to raise awareness about human trafficking, help victims, and prevent such crimes\u0026nbsp;from occurring in the future.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHuman trafficking is often associated with international cases, but what many fail to realize is that it also occurs domestically. I find it incredibly important to understand how this can happen to any person of any age, demographic, gender, or location.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow is your ISyE work complementary to your minor and certificate and to your globally focused extracurricular activities?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe purpose in pursuing all of these subjects \u2013 ISyE, international affairs, and industrial\/organizational psychology \u2013 is to better my understanding of the world at many levels \u2013 global, system, and individual. They each provide unique skills and ways of viewing situations that are necessary when trying to address any kind of problem. To me, my extracurricular activities are ways in which I can take these diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives and apply them towards causes that can better the world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDiscuss the presence that meditation has in your life.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMeditation has had a presence in my life from a very young age. Both of my parents have been meditating since before I was even born, and they also taught meditation as volunteer instructors at home. So while my parents were careful never to impose meditation on me, I grew up with an understanding of the importance of pausing and taking a moment to connect with ourselves.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt wasn\u2019t until I was 17 years old that I began to meditate on my own, and it wasn\u2019t until I started college that I began to meditate much more regularly. For me, especially at a high-paced environment like Tech, meditation is a way of taking a step back, reminding myself that I am alive, and taking a moment to invest in myself, by doing something that many students seem to have forgotten \u2013 to just be.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe kind of meditation I do is called Heartfulness, which focuses on the heart, helping people connect with the very organ that literally keeps us alive and metaphorically brings us all together.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat does the future hold for you, both immediate and long-term?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI am really excited to be able to travel to Hyderabad, India to attend an International Youth Seminar on Heartfulness Meditation in late April. This conference is bringing over 2,500 young people from all over the world to gather together, meditate, and grow.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis summer, I will be interning at Hershey, working with their digital marketing team.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERegardless of what my post-graduation job is, I aspire to make sure that my life is always socially minded.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EISyE sophomore Suraj Sehgal spends his time at Georgia Tech maintaining a wide-ranging world focus.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"ISyE sophomore Suraj Sehgal spends his time at Georgia Tech maintaining a wide-ranging world focus."}],"uid":"28766","created_gmt":"2016-04-04 10:21:29","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:21:17","author":"Shelley Wunder-Smith","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-04-04T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2016-04-04T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"521251":{"id":"521251","type":"image","title":"Suraj Sehgal, ISyE Sophomore","body":null,"created":"1459789200","gmt_created":"2016-04-04 17:00:00","changed":"1475895289","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:49","alt":"Suraj Sehgal, ISyE Sophomore","file":{"fid":"205323","name":"2016-02-18_13.54.11_cropped.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/2016-02-18_13.54.11_cropped_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/2016-02-18_13.54.11_cropped_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":465507,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/2016-02-18_13.54.11_cropped_0.jpg?itok=mqtLWAPn"}},"521261":{"id":"521261","type":"image","title":"Suraj Sehgal in Iceland","body":null,"created":"1459789200","gmt_created":"2016-04-04 17:00:00","changed":"1475895289","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:49","alt":"Suraj Sehgal in Iceland","file":{"fid":"205324","name":"ss_in_iceland.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ss_in_iceland_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ss_in_iceland_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":41528,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ss_in_iceland_0.jpg?itok=mekVCWZB"}},"521271":{"id":"521271","type":"image","title":"Suraj Sehgal with a Sign About Sex Trafficking","body":null,"created":"1459789200","gmt_created":"2016-04-04 17:00:00","changed":"1475895289","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:49","alt":"Suraj Sehgal with a Sign About Sex Trafficking","file":{"fid":"205325","name":"ss_with_sign.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ss_with_sign_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ss_with_sign_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":101482,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ss_with_sign_0.jpg?itok=3_iLVkMm"}}},"media_ids":["521251","521261","521271"],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"171883","name":"EU-Brussels Study Abroad"},{"id":"171884","name":"food insecurity"},{"id":"27471","name":"grand challenges"},{"id":"62081","name":"human trafficking"},{"id":"426","name":"isye"},{"id":"85121","name":"meditation"},{"id":"171885","name":"Suraj Suresh"},{"id":"2628","name":"united nations"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:shelley.wunder-smith@isye.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EShelley Wunder-Smith\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWriter\/Editor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStewart School of Industrial \u0026amp; Systems Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E404.385.4745\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["shelley.wunder-smith@isye.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}