User:Sparab18/sandbox

Shreyas Parab is an entrepreneur and activist, known for his entrepreneurial ventures as the Founder and CEO of the apparel company, NovelTie He has also co-founded a technology company, [www.albert.io/spellforsuccess], that was acquired by Albert.io, an educational company based in Chicago. He is currently finishing his senior year of high school and working on a new start-up called Mynd.ly,.

Early life
Shreyas Parab was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He currently resides in Aston, Pennsylvania. Shreyas was raised by his mother and father who are employed as a dentist and software consultant, respectively. He attended public school at Penn Delco School District before attending Archmere Academy. In his early years, Shreyas competed at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 7th and 8th grade. He was ranked 43rd and 47th in those years, respectively. He credits this experience as the inspiration for starting his company, SpellForSuccess. At Archmere, Shreyas served as Class President twice, then Treasurer of the School, and finally as Student Council Student Body President. He is heavily involved in activities like Science Olympiad, tennis and Mock Trial according to a recent interview.

Entrepreneurship
In the spring of 2015, appropriately on April 1st, Shreyas Parab launched his first company NovelTie through a program called the Young Entrepreneurs Academy. As part of the Saunder's Scholars Program, he won the local pitch competition in his Philadelphia class, moving on to the regional competition. After winning the regional competition, he was selected as one of the top six young entrepreneurs in the country by the US Chamber of Commerce for 2015. . While there, he got the chance to interact with executives at Sam's Club, one of the sponsors of the event. They invited him to their headquarters to meet with executives and speak at their famous "Saturday Morning Meetings," in front of hundreds of Walmart employees with Rosalind Brewer, CEO of Sam's Club at the time. He later became the youngest supplier to Sam's Club that year. ref>

Civic Engagement and Advocacy
In December 2014, Okamoto founded PERIOD. with Vincent Forand, a classmate from Caitlin Gabel High School and current undergraduate student at Cornell University. The organization distributes period products (tampons, pads, menstrual cups, reusable pads, etc.), attempts to engage youth leaders through a global network of campus chapters at universities and high schools around the United States, and works toward social and systemic change around menstrual equity.

====