Knovva Interview with Nadia Venegas, an MG20^® Alumni

Our EdTech company sat down with Shaurya Chandrawanshi, who played the United States’ Head of State at the 2020 Model G20^® summit. We talked to him about his experience at the high school leadership program and his plans after high school.

Knovva Academy: If you could invent something that would make life easier for people, what would you invent?

Shaurya Chandrawanshi: A teleportation device. Because I think travel is the most frustrating thing in my life. Going from one place to another, we think of the amount of time it takes so you can really estimate just how much of our lives is wasted on moving around. Also, I’m in a long distance relationship. I would personally prefer it if we could see each other more easily.

KA: The wisest thing anyone ever told you?

SC: Well, it’s hard not to give a super lame answer. But I would say the wisest thing anyone ever told me was basically to ask in a situation where you might not expect to be able to ask. So for example, if you’re in a situation where you think it’s not appropriate to ask for something like maybe a job offer, and you think it’s inappropriate to ask for better pay, you should at least try.

KA: Do you plan to go to college?

SC: I am taking a gap year, but I plan to go to university. Because of an odd series of events, my offer got deferred to 2021. So I am taking the gap year and reapplying to additional universities. So I have a baseline uni and then some other reapplying. So I will be going to uni in 2021.

KA: Do you know what you want to study? You just mentioned political policy; are you looking forward to anything in particular about the college experience?

SC: In the US, there’s a huge amount of freedom with your degree. So I would say the field that I want to pursue is the social sciences, and data science; quantitative stuff. If I’m going to the UK, then I’m pretty much set on the PP degree because I think that I would really get exhausted learning one single subject forever, like, who wants to study economics forever? So that’s the disciplines I would be interested in. Because I want to work in policymaking.

KA: Is there any other sort of topic that you’re interested in, but that you wouldn’t do professionally?

SC: I think that if I’m in the US, and I don’t pick a minor, I’d basically be wasting my opportunity. I like music. I like writing literature, something like that. Something completely unrelated to my field.

KA: What might people be surprised to learn about you?

SC: When I was eight, I managed to tame a stray cat.

KA: Looking ahead, how do you hope to use the skills and experiences that you’ve gained at the MG20 Summit in your career? Or maybe in your schooling?

SC: I think the budgeting that I learned was the most useful. When I used to look at policymaking, I would look at what the most effective method is. I think that that has helped me a lot in how I research policy, because now it’s more realistic. It’s not just do this and do that and do everything. It’s more, what can you actually, practically do? The second thing I think I learned was just how much money some countries have. In the US, it was 1.1. Trillion dollars in discretionary budget. And when we saw it, we did not know how to spend the money. Another very interesting insight I got was, what about just not spending money? What about cutting your money spending? So yes, skills, I would say budget and insight, I would say maybe the government is spending too much and has too much money in the first mix. But that’s just me.

KA: How do you feel about the quality of the conversations and response from your colleagues and instructors during the summit?

SC: Well, to be honest, my instructors. Miss Martha, Miss Amy, they were extremely helpful and really knowledgeable and genuinely trying to help everyone improve the quality of conversations. There were colleagues who were exceptionally interesting. They’re just likable people. But the staff especially was an extremely skilled group, in my opinion.

KA: How has MG20’s take on pandemic education aligned with values that drive your own education on pandemics?

SC: I’m focused on innovative ideas. So instead of just sort of doing the basic, common sense things like contact tracing, there was also a focus on how we do something that sets up for the future. And it definitely did bring in a very important consideration. Firstly, should the government be responsible for planning for the future? Should the technological developments of 2021 be led by the government, and secondly, are we even capable of looking ahead, because when you think about it, if you make a decision at the beginning of the year based on your political ideologies, and then that decision has to change dynamically, because it’s a technological initiative, you’re held back by your mandate. It’s like the government’s attempts to make innovative ideas are really held back. Actually, I’m convinced that it shouldn’t be the governments who are leading the way forward. They should be assisting us, regular people. But again, that’s just my view.

KA: Is there a single feature of the summit that exceeded your expectations?

SC: I didn’t expect such helpful advice from the instructors: Miss Martha and Miss Amy had a very good idea of politics and policymaking and budgeting, which was better than most chairs I’ve seen.

KA: Do you have a favorite class at school?

SC: Environmental Management, that’s probably my favorite. Because we had to do primary research for it. And it was funny going into people’s houses and asking them for electricity bills.

KA: Do you have a favorite book? And what is the title? And who is the author?

SC: I don’t know if you count fanfiction. But my favorite “book” is a fanfiction called Fallout Equestria. It’s a crossover between a TV show called My Little Pony, which you might have heard of, and a video game called Fallout. But if we’re going for an actual book, I would probably say Dune by Frank Herbert.

KA: Favorite food?

SC: Well, I’m Indian, so I can give you like five billion favorite foods. If I had to pick one, as of now, I mean, if I love soup. Huge soup fan for some reason. I like tomato soup. Corn soup. Chicken soup.

KA: Favorite color?

SC: Lavender, I think. It’s such a nice color. It’s so soft. And it’s bright.

KA: Do you like the scent of lavender?

SC: Yeah, I do, but my favorite scent is cinnamon. If anyone has ever smelled cinnamon, you understand.

KA: Favorite quote?

SC: So it’s a pretty long one. But I think it’s very famous. It’s John Stuart Mill on liberty, where he says, “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”

So in other words, it is just as morally invalid to silence one person as it is to silence every single person except that one person. I think the purpose of the court and the purpose of Mill’s entire philosophy is that the people and the effects of an opinion are less important than the idea of being allowed to express it. So, that unbroken discussion with everyone else could be right.

About Model G20^®

The Model G20^® is an annual leadership program for high school students hosted by Knovva Academy that welcomes students from all around the globe. Through mirroring the real G20, students take an innovative and simulatory approach to developing their leadership skills. Students play active roles among key G20 participants, and gain firsthand experience on diplomacy and addressing global challenges. As the leader in online learning, Knovva Academy provides the tools necessary for future global ambassadors.