Hi, my name is Akul Mallela and I am a senior at Montgomery High School. Some of the things that I am passionate about include taekwondo, robotics, fashion, making, and editing videos. I love math and I’m interested in majoring in Finance and Economics in college. One of my favorite things to do is watch sports and workout in my free time. I also love meeting new people and trying new things to expand my interests.

Being a part of DYC has allowed me to do workshops and fundraisers. One of the workshops that I did was my taekwondo workshop. I’ve been doing taekwondo for six years so it is something I’m very passionate about. In my Taekwondo Workshop, I was able to teach kids fundamental Taekwondo moves so they can get a feel for what Taekwondo is. During covid, many of gyms were closed so people didn’t have much physical activity and to help them be more active I conducted a yoga workshop in which we did some basic yoga moves to help make sure people stay active. Also during the pandemic, we had a shortage of masks for our healthcare workers. To help them I was able to stitch masks and donate them to our healthcare workers. Another workshop I did was my pre-algebra workshop over the summer. I was able to teach them basic pre-algebra concepts such as order of operations so they can have an understanding before school starts. I was able to do a read-aloud in which I read books to younger kids and asked them questions throughout to make sure they were engaged. The fundraiser for Sewa in which we were able to raise money and donate it. Being a part of these was a learning experience as each workshop had its own goals. I was able to grow and see other students’ perspectives that I might have not thought about before. I was also able to see how important the DYC community is and the impact that we have on the world.

Design your Careers has provided me with the platform and opportunity to express my passions to students all around the world. Being able to teach people new things, especially something that I am interested in really motivated me. I was able to express my passions due to DYC’s flexible timings as I was able to create workshops from my own home and my own time. Through this, I was able to grow as a person by learning teaching and communication skills which will be very helpful in the future. I hope everyone can join DYC and share their own passions with the world.