Nadya Okamoto

Nadya Okamoto
Okamoto at the 2018 Texas Teen Book Festival
Born (1998-02-11) February 11, 1998
New York City, New York, United States
Residence Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma mater Catlin Gabel School
Harvard University
Political party Democratic

Nadya Okamoto is a social entrepreneur and activist, known as the Founder and Executive Director of the non-profit organization PERIOD.[1] In 2017, Nadya launched an unsuccessful bid for a seat on the Cambridge City Council.[2]

Early life

Nadya Okamoto was born in New York City before moving to Portland, Oregon where she attended an independent private school Catlin Gabel.[3]

Her mother, Sophia Tzeng, also attended Harvard and graduated in 1995. She is currently a visiting instructor of social impact management at the University of Portland. [4] [5]

PERIOD.

In December 2014, Okamoto founded PERIOD. with her mother Sophia Tzeng and Vincent Forand, a classmate from Catlin Gabel High School and current undergraduate student at Cornell University. The organization distributes period products (tampons, pads, menstrual cups, reusable pads, etc.) to people in need, involves youth leaders through campus chapters at universities and high schools around the United States, and works toward social and legal change around menstrual equity.[6]

Civic Engagement and Politics

On the night of the 2016 Presidential Election, Okamoto launched the #ElectionReaction series through her platform on Huffington Post and social media. After seeing the success of that campaign, she engaged a few other Harvard students and together they launched a nonprofit and post-partisan media platform, E Pluribus. After several months, the media platform is no longer active. [7][8]

In 2017, Okamoto announced her candidacy for Cambridge City Council, running on a progressive platform with a youth-led campaign team. She was the youngest candidate in the race, and focused her campaign on issues of affordable housing, education equity, sustainable living, climate change, worker’s rights, civil liberties, government accountability, and human rights. She eventually lost the election, taking 15th place out of 26 candidates and attributes her loss partially due to losing original members of the campaign team. [9][10][11][12]

Education

In her senior year of high school at Catlin Gabel High School, Nadya was awarded numerous scholarships. She is a 2016 Coca-Cola Scholar, Gates Millennium Scholar, PEO Star Scholarship, and Most Valuable Student Scholar of the Elks National Foundation.[13][14]

Okamoto is currently an undergraduate student at Harvard College.[15]

Awards and honors

  • 2014 and 2015 ANNpower Fellow and Grantee (Global-Washington, D.C.)[16]
  • 2015 President’s Volunteer Service Award (National-Washington, D.C.)[17]
  • 2015 Hasbro Community Action Hero Award (National-Los Angeles, CA)[18]
  • 2015 National Youth Leadership Council: Lead Activist (National-Minneapolis, MN)[19]
  • 2015 TedxYouth Portland Keynote Speaker (Statewide-Portland, OR) [20]
  • 2016 Impact Entrepreneurs Pitch Fest Winner, Camions of Care (Statewide)[21]
  • 2016 President’s Volunteer Service Award (National-Washington, D.C.) [22]
  • 2016 TedxPortland Keynote Speaker (National-Portland, OR)[23]
  • 2016 NW Examiner Community Award Recipient (Local-Portland,OR) [24]
  • 2016 L’Oreal Paris Women of Worth National Finalist (National)[25]
  • 2016 Her Campus: 22 Under 22 Most Inspiring College Women (National)[26]
  • 2016 Oregon Entrepreneurs Network: Game Changer Award for Camions of Care (Statewide)[27]
  • 2017 HerLead: ANNpower Ambassador Fellowship (Global)[28]
  • 2017 Three Dot Dash: Global Teen Leader (Global)[29]
  • 2017 Pond’s Fellowship, Vital Voices (Global)[30]

References

  1. ↑ "This Harvard 'Period Girl' Wants to Help Lead the 'Menstrual Equity Movement'". NBC News. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
  2. ↑ "Home". Vote Nadya. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
  3. ↑ "19-year-old Harvard freshman runs for City Council - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
  4. ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiatzeng/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ↑ https://www.up.edu/academics/faculty-profiles/2017-new-faculty-profiles/sophia-tzeng.html/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ↑ "Leading the Menstrual Movement".
  7. ↑ "About Us". E Pluribus. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
  8. ↑ "19-year-old Harvard freshman runs for City Council - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
  9. ↑ "This Inspiring Teen is Running for City Council".
  10. ↑ "Coming Soon".
  11. ↑ "Nadya Teresa Okamoto - Cambridge City Council Candidate 2017". vote.cambridgecivic.com. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
  12. ↑ "The Harvard Sophomore Aiming for City Council". 2017-10-13.
  13. ↑ "Meet NADYA OKAMOTO". Every Ella. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
  14. ↑ "Nadya Okamoto 18's profile - Mogul". Mogul. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
  15. ↑ "Nadya Okamoto". PERIOD. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
  16. ↑ "2014 Fellows".
  17. ↑ "Student wins Presidential award".
  18. ↑ http://generationon.org/teens/meet/hasbro-community-action-heroes/2015
  19. ↑ "Youth4Ed Has Been Busy". 2016-06-16.
  20. ↑ "TEDx Youth Portland 2015-Nadya Okamoto".
  21. ↑ http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/sbo/2016/02/womens-care-company-lands-top-psu-pitch-fest-prize.html
  22. ↑ "Student wins Presidential award". www.catlin.edu. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
  23. ↑ "The Menstrual Movement | Nadya Okamoto | TEDxPortland".
  24. ↑ (PDF) http://nwexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/May-2016-draft7.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  25. ↑ "Why This Harvard Freshman Doesn't Mind Being Called 'Period Girl'".
  26. ↑ "Nadya okamoto her campus 22 - Google Search".
  27. ↑ "OEN and the Tom Holce 2016 Entrepreneurship Awards".
  28. ↑ "Girls-HERlead - Vital Voices". Vital Voices. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
  29. ↑ "Nadya Okamoto".
  30. ↑ https://gradymla.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/period-newsletter.pdf
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