Riya is a junior from Claremont, California majoring in Law, History, and Culture and double minoring in Business and Psychology. She is the current president of Lean In USC. She is also involved in the Roosevelt Network and Vote SC. She was the previous Director of Workshops for the pre-law fraternity at USC - Phi Alpha Delta. The official mission of Lean In USC is “allowing women to lean into their full potential and be unapologetically ambitious.” Her own definition of the mission is: “for women to lean in for their full potential professionally and to make connections they may not have made otherwise. Lean is about creating professional growth and skills.” Her main responsibility as president is to delegate tasks within each branch of the team (such as operations, member development, finance, etc). She is the main face of Lean In USC to the outside world and helps create connections with companies. She also helps the organization create connections with other organizations on campus.
One of Lean In’s most important aspects is their brand: “Through Lean In, we have created a brand that would appeal to us” she says “we want to make professional development fun. Our brand has walked the line between being girly and professional - we do not want the two to be mutually exclusive.” She says what different Lean In from other female oriented organizations is that they want to get people in a room from all majors, by allowing their members to meet women they would not have met organically on campus. “I believe that we are a strong intersectional space - I think it is important to learn from those in other industries in order to create stronger business skills for yourself.” Some fun facts about her is that she originally committed to our rival UCLA, but then realized USC was the right choice for her. She has also been to Antarctica. Her advice to future Trojans is: “Do not try to rebrand yourself overnight. College is an opportunity to explore your interests but that does not mean you have to completely change your essence immediately. Take the time to get to know yourself.”
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