Today we’d like to introduce you to Raj Salhotra.
So, before we jump into specific questions about what you do, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I grew up here in Houston with parents who migrated from India. My dad came to the US for graduate school with very little money and my mom came when she was 11 years old. They worked hard and built a life in Houston and lived the American dream. My dad started a small engineering business here in Houston and my mom became a professor at the University of Houston Downtown. I was lucky enough to attend Rice University and then decided to become a teacher. I became a teacher because of my experiences with transformational teachers and my experience working with Chang, a student whom I worked with on the SAT who ultimately secured a full-ride scholarship to Carnegie Mellon University. As a teacher, I taught high school math at a low-income school in the Hiram-Clarke area of Houston. This experience was incredible yet left me frustrated both at my inability to help ensure students reached their post-secondary goals and because of the real challenges outside of education that affected students. So, I left teaching and launched Students With Ambition Go (SWAG) To College, an educational mentorship organization that helps high school students connect with college mentors and college students connect with young professional mentors. I also went to law school at Harvard and returned to Houston last year to build up the non-profit and now to run for Houston City Council.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have been incredibly blessed and found many mentors and support systems along my journey. Nevertheless, I have had some challenges whether it was a childhood stutter that was debilitating until a mentor helped me in 8th grade find strategies to overcome it or applying to five post-college fellowships and being rejected from each one to turning down a law firm job to run for political office against an incumbent. However, through all these struggles, I have remained committed to the belief that everything happens for a reason and I have been fortunate to have mentors throughout the process.
Students With Ambition Go (SWAG) To College – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
SWAG To College provides mentors for students to help them get to and through college. We connect high school students with college mentors who check-in with them monthly to help them get to college. We then connect our college students with young professionals who help them get through college and into the workforce.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career has been seeing my former students or former mentees through our non-profit complete post-secondary education and secure a well-paying job that will help break the cycle of poverty.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.swagtocollege.org
- Phone: 713-320-0303
- Email: raj.salhotra@swagtocollege.org
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