Since he was 10 years old, Dhruv Pai has had a passion for serving his community. Two years ago, Dhruv started volunteering at local military hospitals working with people suffering from dementia. Since then, helping the elderly population has been his purpose in life. In March, when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, Dhruv noticed that his elderly grandparents and neighbors were scared to get out of the house to get medications and groceries. He thought that if his family and neighbors were afraid, there were likely others, especially those who do not have family close by to help them. This is when Dhruv’s teen volunteer group effort called Teens Helping Seniors was born.
Transcript
[00:00:01.540] - Meg Brunson
Welcome to FamilyPreneur®, the podcast for busy parents building profitable businesses. If we haven't met yet. I'm Meg Brunson and we are about to simplify business and marketing strategies because balance was never about spending equal time between your business and your family. Nope. You want to spend previously unimagined amounts of time making memories with your kids, and the only way that's going to happen is if we get your marketing under control. I want to take a minute to acknowledge that Black Lives Matter, that love is love, and that inclusivity is essential for success. So I welcome all colors, genders and cultures to join us for today's episode.
[00:00:50.810] - Meg Brunson
Since he was 10 years old, Dhruv Pai has had a passion for serving his community. Two years ago, Dhruv started volunteering at a local military hospital, working with people suffering from dementia. Since then, helping the elderly population has been his purpose in life. In March of last year, when covid-19 was declared a pandemic, Dhruv noticed that his elderly grandparents and neighbors were scared to get out of the house, to get their medications, to get groceries. And he thought that if his family and neighbors were afraid, there were likely others, especially those who didn't have family close by to help, that we're feeling the same thing. That is when Dhruv's teen volunteer group called Teens Helping Seniors was born. And today I'm so excited to have Dhruv Pai with us so we can talk a little bit more about that whole process, that organization, and how kids can get involved in entrepreneurship. Dhruv, thank you so much for being here today.
[00:01:52.370] - Dhruv Pai
Yeah. Thank you so much for inviting me. It's great to be here. You know, when I heard about a space that's looking at entrepreneurship, but specifically entrepreneurship in connection with families, I knew that I had to get involved. So, again, thank you so much for inviting me.
[00:02:06.410] - Meg Brunson
Well, we're happy to have you here. I'd love to know, are your parents entrepreneurial at all? Did they give you this bug genetically?
[00:02:16.160] - Dhruv Pai
That's a difficult question. My mom is a doctor by profession and my dad has worked in the government. And right now he's trying to get- he's started a few small businesses and he's trying to get those off the ground. But I'd say even for me, I didn't- I wasn't born with an entrepreneurial spirit. Right. I barely knew what entrepreneurship was truly in middle school. And it wasn't so much that, you know, one day the switch kind of turned on that said, hey, I'm going to go be an entrepreneur.
[00:02:47.030] - Dhruv Pai
It was more of a gradual thing for me. Right? I got involved with organizations in the beginning as as a sort of follower. Right. Content to be at the- a member of the pack. But eventually I started moving up, I started accepting leadership, and then I kind of came into my entrepreneurial spirit, which I think is the more common story for a lot of people.
[00:03:07.580] - Meg Brunson
Yeah. And so what was the first time that you remember, like what was that first entrepreneurial venture that you remember jumping into?
[00:03:15.980] - Dhruv Pai
Right. So I volunteer with a local military hospital, as you were saying. And so I volunteer during the summers. And one summer I think it was the summer of twenty eighteen. If I'm remembering correctly, I was talking to one of the friends that I'd made during the program during the last few days of the program. It's a program with the Red Cross to help the elderly veterans in the hospital. And she said that she was going to start her own- she had started her own nonprofit called Arts and STEM for Hearts based on her own experiences working in the hospital and working with the people who need services the most. And she said, hey, do you want to come on board as a leadership position? I know you. I know the work that you're doing in the hospital. And I would love to have you as a member of my team. And that was just that was the first time for me because I'd never been involved with leadership in volunteer organizations up to that point.
[00:04:09.410] - Dhruv Pai
And so I was really apprehensive at first to tell you the truth, because I was kind of scared of the responsibilities. I was unsure of where it was going to go and at the same time it was a relatively new nonprofit. So we barely knew what we were getting into. But, you know, luckily, thanks to thanks to her guidance, her perseverance and the help I was able to give her, you know, we've really taken this nonprofit off the ground and grown Arts and STEM for Hearts to even an international scale. And so that was really my first experience. I joined as a brand ambassador. I am now the chief technology officer of that organization.
[00:04:43.640] - Meg Brunson
Awesome. Well, that's some great, you know, vertical mobility there. So is volunteering, working with nonprofits and volunterering. Is that a good way, would you think, to get involved, to get your kids from the parent perspective, to get your kids involved in business and start thinking entrepreneurially?
[00:05:01.400] - Dhruv Pai
Yeah, well, I can't speak too much to this, but I think in my in my humble opinion that, you know, starting from the point of view of a nonprofit, starting from the point of altruism is really the best mindset to have in business. Right. So business is all about all about that profit. And when you get involved with a nonprofit, when you get involved with volunteer work, especially at an early age, it kind of teaches you that the world is not all about profit.
[00:05:28.130] - Dhruv Pai
And there are there are, you know, vocations and there are especially, you know, interests that don't revolve around making a profit. And the beauty of those is that allows you to focus on other things like developing empathy, developing interpersonal relations, developing altruism. And all these things can be developed, you know, from a business standpoint. But I find that the easiest way to do that, especially with young people, is through volunteerism, and that's especially volunteerism that happens on a local scale, helping out their community, helping out their loved ones, and even even the smallest gestures can really make a difference.
[00:06:01.760] - Dhruv Pai
So I think getting involved in volunteering will really help your child have an outlook on business and on entrepreneurship that is focused around helping people, that is focused around empathy. And I think that's what we need right now in today's society. More entrepreneurs like that.
[00:06:17.830] - Meg Brunson
Oh, my gosh. I feel like that is gold. That is everything. And you started by saying you can't really- you can speak to that, OK? From now on, you can speak to that, because that was just brilliant. I feel like that was an amazing answer. And I think it's not just for kids like we are talking about kids here. For many people watching this, you are a kid, but this is a lesson for adults, too.
[00:06:45.350] - Meg Brunson
I'm a big proponent of valuing people over profits. Right. And that's what you're talking about, is, you know, we're here to serve and through service is how we we profit and we make money. It's not about- it's not just about making money. It's really about providing that service. Service, not sales... Or provide the service and sales will come. But, man, you said it. And I feel like- I just feel like you need a moment. You drop the mic. That was incredible. So thank you for that.
[00:07:16.400] - Dhruv Pai
Yeah. Thank you. I mean, yeah, going off what you said, it definitely doesn't have to be something just for kids. I mean, volunteering is best when you do it with people that you love and people that you enjoy being with. It's truly the more the merrier. And so family volunteering has been on the rise, especially recently. You know, you can volunteer with your children at a lot of different opportunities. And in that case, there really isn't an age barrier. Right, because it's really just hands on work. And the more you put into it, the more good that will come out of it. And that's kind of the beauty of volunteering. It's blind to all those barriers that normally permeate society. And so I think that's why it's great to get involved in family volunteering.
[00:07:56.420] - Meg Brunson
Yes. And you, since getting into volunteering, you specifically found this passion for helping the older generations and bridging the generational gap. Can you share a little bit about the benefits of that- of teens and young people helping the elderly population?
[00:08:16.820] - Dhruv Pai
Right. So the reason that I really got involved in this was, as you said, because of my own grandparents. Right. It really started from there. And it kind of shocked me, especially during the pandemic, that there was this sort of disconnect between the elderly and the youth. And so when I additionally started an organization to help the elderly during the pandemic, I was like, there's no way this is going to take off, frankly, because I had read stories in the media that said, you know, teens don't care about the pandemic. Teens are going to the beach because they're ignoring stay at home. They're licking groceries. And other atrocities. And so I had this kind of mindset, you know, that maybe the generations weren't willing to work together. And I'm happy to say I was totally wrong. You know, that that is the exception. Definitely not the rule. And we've had hundreds of teens from all over the country reach out and say, hey, I don't know you personally. I heard about you on the news, but this is a need I see in my community. This is a need I see within my communities, elderly population. And I want to help out. And the fact that they're willing to take that initiative from all over the country and even in Canada means that, you know, there's still hope in terms of crossing this generational barrier. And I think that's been fueled by the pandemic. The pandemic has really been able to bring us together in ways that maybe we would have never done initially.
[00:09:32.570] - Dhruv Pai
And so now what we have is that I've seen my volunteers forge intimate connections with the seniors that they deliver to, that they work with. And in that way, they find that they have more in common. But the big step is just really getting that first contact. Right, because once you get that first contact and they start to realize, you know, that maybe that maybe age isn't a barrier, that maybe we all have something in common, maybe we can all have fun together. And so once you get that first contact, it really just goes uphill from there. And it's a beautiful process to watch unfold. But that's what I've been trying to do in terms of bridging that generational gap.
[00:10:10.730] - Meg Brunson
So if there is a parent or child listening, and they're interested in doing something like this, do you have a program where they reach out to you and they can bring a chapter to their community?
[00:10:22.130] - Dhruv Pai
Yep. So the organization that me and my friends started called Teens Helping Seniors that I was just talking about, you can find it at TeensHelpingSeniors.org, or on various social media, under TeensHelpingSeniors, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. Or you can email us at TeensHelpingSeniors@gmail.com and if you reach out to us and say, you know, hey, my area doesn't have a chapter of Teens Helping Seniors and I would love to get started, we will provide you with all the materials and all the advice that you need to get started in your area, including weekly check ins, so that we can you can update us on your progress and we can help you with that. Yeah. And we'll really help you foster your your ability as a chapter so that you can help your community.
[00:11:03.370] - Meg Brunson
So you'll help with everything. How do you find the first senior to help in growing your network and things like that?
[00:11:11.560] - Dhruv Pai
Yep, yep. Outreach is a is a really big part of not just even our organization, but a part of all volunteering, especially during the pandemic. And so thankfully, you know, now Teens Helping Seniors does have a lot of outreach and some coverage, but especially when you're starting out, it was a more difficult problem because any small business or any small nonprofit knows that getting your word out there is the hardest part. It's the hardest first step.
[00:11:38.920] - Meg Brunson
I've got to just address the cat butt in the room. You are amazing. You have delivered that amazingly! OK, anyhow. You- I feel like that- you are a very skilled young man, that that cat didn't even derail your answer. Gold.
[00:11:56.630] - Dhruv Pai
I've got a lot of experience with my cat sitting on my computer.
[00:12:02.800] - Meg Brunson
That is awesome. No, that is great, I love the level of support that you provide. I would love to know what is your your vision like you have a five year goal or a 10 year goal for this. Or what, do you see for the future with this nonprofit?
[00:12:18.550] - Dhruv Pai
So Teens Helping Seniors really did start out as teens helping seniors. But we started to realize that, you know, there's so much more than that. There's so much more than just teens helping seniors. And it's expanded now to teens helping the- teens helping veterans, teens helping people with dementia or Alzheimer's, teens helping, you know, wherever they can help. And that's kind of the message now. And eventually it won't even be teens. It'll just be, you know, people helping other people.
[00:12:44.530] - Dhruv Pai
And that's kind of the goal. And so we're we really trying to diversify. And what we mean by diversify is really get involved with the nonprofit space, because there's no reason why teens helping seniors should exist as a standalone organization. There's no reason why any volunteering should be stand alone when there's so many other nonprofits working so hard to reach a different group that we could help out, whether with our volunteer work or with our using our coverage to spread messages, positive messages, et cetera.
[00:13:16.300] - Dhruv Pai
And so we really want to get involved with as many opportunities as possible. And that way, at the same time, our teens can also have a great variety of opportunities to volunteer. And so, for example, we got involved with a veterans organization called Serving Together. And so we've been delivering free produce boxes to veterans in the D.C., Maryland, Virginia; DMV area. And so that's happening on a weekly or biweekly basis. And then we've also delivered Halloween goods, Christmas goods, festivities to our seniors so that, you know, even if they can't go out and enjoy with their family, as they normally would, they can still have a little ray of hope during their holidays especially.
[00:13:57.730] - Dhruv Pai
And so that's what we're trying to do. We're really trying to make Teens Helping Seniors more multifaceted. And even after the pandemic, we want to continue to foster this intergenerational bridge as much as we can.
[00:14:11.290] - Meg Brunson
I mean, it sounds like a big mission, like a big movement to just get people helping people and how that's going to help us all. A tide lifts all ships - it's that concept.
[00:14:23.500] - Dhruv Pai
It really is a movement and specifically for, you know, narrowing in on teen volunteerism. And that's where we've seen, I think, the biggest the biggest movement during the pandemic because, you know, teen involvement in volunteerism before the pandemic versus where it is now. It's a lot better, you know, because I think the pandemic has made a lot of our youth realize that volunteering is more needed now than ever. And they can actually see the fruits of their volunteering in terms of who they're helping out in the community.
[00:14:55.280] - Dhruv Pai
And so we've really seen that movement. It's continuing fortunately and hopefully once this crisis is over, it'll continue to grow because I think that there- the need will always be there. And the more people we can get involved and the greater their efforts, the more impact we'll have.
[00:15:11.650] - Meg Brunson
Yes, and I think a great way. We mentioned family volunteer opportunities, and I think that's a great way to instill that value on younger kids so that when they get to be a teenager, they already are in that mindset of wanting to give back and wanting to pay it forward and wanting to help other people.
[00:15:30.010] - Dhruv Pai
Yeah, yeah. I think that's particularly important because for me it was daunting to get into volunteering when I was younger, when I was in middle school, because I hadn't really had many experiences with volunteering in elementary school and at a very young age. So I wasn't sure what it was. I wasn't sure what it constituted. And I was really apprehensive. And so I think that if you get your kids involved the earlier- as early as possible, you know, then they'll have an idea that maybe volunteering isn't as as scary as it might seem.
[00:16:01.600] - Dhruv Pai
Right. It doesn't have to be a chore. It doesn't have to be strenuous. Right. It can be something that you enjoy, can be something that you do for fun. And I think once you get them to that point where they're willing to do this for their own sake rather than for anyone else's sake, then I think that, you know, you've instilled in them a sense of altruism and empathy that's going to help them for the rest of their life.
[00:16:22.180] - Meg Brunson
So in addition to finding other teens who want to start chapters and participate in their communities, what are other ways that people that our listeners can help you and help your organization?
[00:16:36.760] - Dhruv Pai
Right, so there are a lot of a lot of small ways that you can go out of your way to not only help our organization, but in a larger sense, help the movement of teen volunteerism. And so, certainly Teens Helping Seniors is not the only youth organization. There are a lot of local and national level youth organizations that are operating during the pandemic. And so you should really volunteer to cater to your interests. So, for example, if your interest is in agriculture, then maybe you can join some sort of volunteer organization that's related to that.
[00:17:11.080] - Dhruv Pai
Or if you're interested in civics, you can join something related to that, etc. And so you should really find volunteering that caters to your interests so that, you know, you have fun while doing it. It doesn't seem like work for you. And then no matter what what organization you're involved with, whether you choose to be involved with Teens Helping seniors or any other organization, just realize the effect of what you're doing, realize that you're you're making an impact in the world.
[00:17:34.690] - Dhruv Pai
And at the same time, you know, try to try to gain as many skills and as many experiences and meet as many new people as possible, because that's really what you're going to get out of the experience.
[00:17:43.720] - Meg Brunson
And it reminds me a lot of some of the lessons we talk about when it comes to business. Right. You don't have to do all the things. So I like that you recommend, find the one thing that you're interested in and volunteer for that one thing. There's so many people in the world that if everybody volunteered for one thing that they're interested in, everything would get covered. So you don't have to feel guilty that you're not helping the poor puppies at the animal shelter. Instead, you chose to help seniors or vice versa because it all get done if everybody does their part.
[00:18:15.070] - Dhruv Pai
Yeah, and that really comes to the next step, which is once you once you've decided on what you want to volunteer, it's about spreading the word and it's about convincing other people to do the same and to get involved. And that's really the next step of where we want to take the volunteering movement. We just want to get more and more people involved. And it's really been like a ripple effect. Right. And I've seen this even within Teens Helping Seniors.
[00:18:37.060] - Dhruv Pai
So we go deliver to one person in an elderly community. And then the next week we have dozens of requests from there because simply through word of mouth, you know, people talk about it and say, hey, this service is happening and I think you could benefit from it. And so in the same way, you know, if we can just spread volunteering through social media, through word of mouth and it should be, you know, not just spreading blasting messages to everyone, but if you share your own personal experiences with volunteering, it's 100 hundred times more impactful and it'll be 100 times better in terms of making an influence.
[00:19:10.450] - Meg Brunson
Yes. Yes. Well, I think this was amazing. I want to- I just want to thank you so much. I feel like you blew my mind and I'm sure that my listeners are going to agree. Can you let us know? Where can we connect with you? Where can we connect with teens helping seniors? What are all the links and places that we can connect with you and support you?
[00:19:34.840] - Dhruv Pai
All the links, hmm, OK, I'll start with just me. Yeah, I'll start with just me so you can find my personal email at DhruvBPai@Gmail.Com. And then for Teens Helping Seniors, you can- we have TeensHelpingSeniors.org, and then TeensHelpingSeniors@Gmail.Com. For the other organization, Arts and STEM for Hearts, its ArtsAndSTEMforHearts.org. And then finally, I'm actually starting up a new nonprofit. And the goal of this nonprofit is to sort of merge STEM, which is my schooling background in science, technology, engineering and mathematics with volunteerism. And so that's called STEMpathy. And there's no website for that yet. But be on the lookout because it'll be it'll be going up soon. And I would love for anyone to get involved.
[00:20:31.090] - Meg Brunson
Well, now you're going to tell me a little bit more about STEMpathy. You waited until the end to drop this gold. Tell me what that is going to be about.
[00:20:40.150] - Dhruv Pai
Yeah, so I've really- so a lot of my schooling experience has been with STEM and that's been my background, especially, you know, my parents both are both STEM professionals. And I was kind of raised with a sense of- a sense of STEM kind of in terms of that spirit of research, that spirit of curiosity. But at the same time, you know, as I grew up and I started to look into research and science, you know, a simple Google scholar search and you'll see that there are so many different academic research articles are being published every day.
[00:21:15.070] - Dhruv Pai
But how many of those are actually going to make an impact? How many of those are actually going to help someone? And how many of those are going to touch a life? And so at some point, there became this sort of disconnect between what we're researching in our ivory tower of science and knowledge with what's actually going on and how we can help people. And so the goal is to sort of bridge that divide. And that might be a little vague. And I haven't really ironed out too much of the specifics. But my goal right now is really to bring those two fields of STEM and empathy together into into STEMpathy.
[00:21:50.140] - Meg Brunson
I love that. And I can't wait to see how that pans out. I can tell that you have a bright future ahead of you. And I'm really excited that I got to meet you at this stage in your career. And I cannot wait to see how it pans over the coming years. I want to thank you so much for spending time with us and sharing so much knowledge and information, especially around the importance of volunteering. I think that's a lesson that us as parents, we may need a reminder, you know, that we probably could be doing a little more than we're doing and getting our kids involved in that process as early as possible to.
[00:22:22.480] - Dhruv Pai
Yeah, it was great being here and once again, I want to urge anyone listening to the show to feel free to contact me if there are any questions or anything you want to say, because I would love to follow up with you.
[00:22:34.480] - Meg Brunson
Thank you so much, Dhruv.
[00:22:37.470] - Meg Brunson
That's it for this episode of FamilyPreneur®. You'll find all the links mentioned and the show notes at MegBrunson.com/podcast. Until next time, I'll see you over in the FamilyPreneur® community. Bye for now.
In This Episode You'll Learn
- How preteens/teens can get involved in the community and how this can help in bridging the intergenerational gap.
- How to start a teen run organization, barriers faced and how Dhruv overcame those barriers.
Listen and Subscribe Now
Meet Dhruv Pai
Since he was 10 years old, Dhruv Pai has had a passion for serving his community. Two years ago, Dhruv started volunteering at local military hospitals working with people suffering from dementia. Since then, helping the elderly population has been his purpose in life. In March, when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, Dhruv noticed that his elderly grandparents and neighbors were scared to get out of the house to get medications and groceries. He thought that if his family and neighbors were afraid, there were likely others, especially those who do not have family close by to help them. This is when Dhruv’s teen volunteer group effort called Teens Helping Seniors was born.