Kavita Rai, Anusha Tandon, and Ina Bhoopalam – are among the 24 teenage girls selected as “Girl Up” advisers heading to Washington, D.C., for the upcoming United Nations Women Empowerment Summit.

Rai, of Camillo, Calif.; Tandon, of Acton, Mass.; and Bhoopalam, of Lincoln, Neb., will join the 21 other teen advisers for the summit July 8 through July 11.

The purpose of the summit is to improve the lives of other girls, and Rai is hoping she can play a part in achieving that goal, according to a Camarillo Acorn report.

“It’s important not to live in a bubble,” the 16-year-old daughter of Rajinder and Mukesh Rai said in the report.

The teens were selected to head to the summit by Girl Up, an empowerment campaign of the United Nations Foundation, to speak at the organization’s annual summit on issues facing girls and women, the report said.

Some 400 girls from 17 states and five countries who are active in the Girl Up campaign in their communities applied to be teen advisers, the publication added.

The advisers who were selected “share the common goal of supporting girls around the world and achieving global gender equality,” spokesperson Beth Nervig said.

Through local Girl Up clubs, participants “have helped us raise more than $8 million for our partner United Nations programs since Girl Up began” in 2010, Nervig added in a Girl Up news release.

On her Girl Up bio page, Rai, who will be a senior at Newbury Park High, started a Girl Up chapter at her school two years ago, but her “advocacy for women’s rights has been a passion of mine for years now.” She is also involved in YMCA Youth & Government where she loves to discuss issues such as prison reform, gun control and women’s reproductive rights.

Tandon, 17, is a senior at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School. She first joined Girl Up in the sixth grade when she wanted to use her voice to help people around the world.

“I was enticed by Girl Up’s unique format that allows girls to be at the forefront of change, because I had never seen a campaign that was basically run by girls,” she said on her GirlUp bio page.

“I helped found a club in my middle and high school, and have taken leadership roles ever since. I feel like I have grown so much over the years, and I’ve loved seeing the amazing women in my club grow up along with me,” she added.

Aside from spending so much time with Girl Up, Tandon participates in many other activities outside of school. Music is a huge part of her life, she said, adding that she is part of the chamber choir at my school along with two a cappella groups, and takes Hindustani classical music lessons, which helps her keep in touch with my culture.

“I am so thrilled for the opportunity to be a part of the 2018-2019 Teen Advisor class and am looking forward to an impactful year,” she said.

Bhoopalam, a student at East High School in Lincoln, is a self-proclaimed activist and advocate. “I couldn’t be more excited and honored to serve as an Advisor for the 2018-2019 term,” she said in her GirlUp bio.

“My experience with Girl Up starts a little over a year ago, when I made a promise to myself that I would no longer stay silent in the face of so many problems,” she added. “It was around that time when I heard about Girl Up from a friend and was immediately hooked – Girl Up embodied my core values and gave me the chance to stand up for what I most strongly believe in.”

Bhoopalam started a chapter in Lincoln and, just within a few weeks brought together hundreds of youth to fight for gender equality and a brighter future. 

Being an adviser, she said, starts a new chapter in my fight for women’s rights, and “I’m overwhelmingly thrilled to kick it off by making an everlasting change with YOU,” she wrote.

After doing work with GirlUp this past year she said it has become clear to her that “when our #girlpower is unleashed, we can ignite an avalanche of change. So, girls this year let’s get together and release that #girlpower.”

“Global gender equality has long been something I have dreamt about, and I can’t wait to work with you to create a future where global gender equality isn’t just what we dream of but our reality,” she said.

Along with several adult speakers scheduled to appear at next month’s summit, the teen advisers will share their stories with about 400 other girls expected to attend, the report added.

Rai said in the Acorn report that she’ll likely speak at the summit about how she and fellow Newbury Park High School students organized a fundraiser to mark International Women’s Day in March and raised $3,000 on behalf of Girl Up.

Two years ago she started a Girl Up club at Newbury Park High, where she’ll be a senior in the fall, after hearing about the organization from a friend, according to the publication.

“We partner with the United Nations in six countries on programming that helps ensure girls have access to education, health care, and are safe getting to and from school,” Nervig told the Acorn.

Through focused fundraising campaigns organized at the local level by Girl Up clubs around the world, the organization can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to address a specific problem, the report said.

In places like Guyana, Guatemala, Ethiopia and India, Rai said in the report, there are girls who are struggling against poverty, abuse, child marriage—serious conditions she’s fortunate to never have experienced.

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