Lower Makefield Ween named school board represenwawive

PENNSBURY – Neha Gupta of Lower Makefield is well on her way to becoming an M.D.

By age 16, she has garnered global notoriety for her philanthropic efforts on behalf of orphaned and underprivileged children around the world.

Her most recent stride is being appointed as junior representative to the Pennsbury School Board. The formal announcement was made at the regular school board meeting in September.

“We extend a warm welcome to Neha and express our appreciation for her ability to raise the level of Pennsbury pride beyond our highest expectations,” said Dr. Kevin McHugh, superintendent of the Pennsbury School District.

McHugh described her as “a well-rounded student with a GPA of 4.6.”

Neha was nominated by one of her teachers and she completed an application process to be selected by the high school administration for the role. In this capacity, she will serve as a student liaison in a nonvoting, advisory role.

Neha will serve this year with former junior representative, Alissa Johnson, who has now moved up to become senior representative.

Since she was 9-years-old, Neha has garnered local, regional, national and global notoriety. She founded the non-profit organization known as Empower Orphans, and has raised over $700,000 to positively impact the lives of more than 15,000 children.

Neha explained why she helps orphans in India. “My grandparents live in India and we visit them each year over the summer,” she said. “As part of these annual visits, I volunteer at an orphanage along with my parents. Over time I realized that the children who lived at the orphanage did not have the means to gain an education.

“My parents have drilled the importance of education into me and I realized that a lack of even a basic education would perpetuate the cycle of poverty and crime for these children,” she explained.

Neha could not accept this situation as status quo. “Instead of merely showing empathy towards them or internalizing my feelings, I took action by selling my toys in a garage sale and raised money to purchase school books for them,” she said.

Thus, she said, Empower Orphans, a new non-profit organization, “was born.”

The goal of Empower Orphans is to create self-sufficiency among orphaned and underprivileged children through education and healthcare.

Over the past seven years, the organization has raised approximately $700,000 and has impacted the lives of more than 15,000 in India and the United States.

After her high school graduation, she hopes to attend a college that will best prepare her to become a doctor.

“I am also looking forward to meeting and forging friendships with other young people with diverse backgrounds,” Neha said.

Her ultimate goal career-wise is to become a pediatrician. She believes that “is an excellent fit with my vision for Empower Orphans.

“As a doctor and a pediatrician, I believe that I will be better equipped to achieve these objectives,” Neha said.

As founder of Empower Orphans, she has a lot of experience with serving as a liaison between youth groups and adult board members of non-profit organizations such as Independent Youth and World of Children.

”I believe that this background and experience will allow me to be more efficient and effective in conducting the responsibilities of a student representative,” Neha said.

In her newest role as junior student representative, Neha said she hopes “to continue to forge a productive relationship between the student body and the Pennsbury School Board.

“I have been told by members of organizations that I have served on, that I am open-minded, state my point of view firmly and clearly – yet being respectful of others,” she continued. “I believe that these skills will facilitate my role.”

Neha looks forward “to getting to know the board members and members of the student council.”

Neha is the daughter of Amruta and Vikas Gupta. Amruta is a vice president at SymphonyIRI and Vikas is a senior director at Oracle Corporation.