I'm Yuga Patel, co-founder of a fintech company called Ekpa.

I am 20 years old, live in San Francisco, and am a first-generation immigrant.

I grew up in Gujarat, India, until I was eight years old. In 2014 I immigrated to the US with my family, and I spent most of my teenage years in Jersey City, NJ. I arrived without knowing any English, so adjusting to school in America was a steep learning curve. Math became my first real passion, partly because I was good at it and partly because it helped me make sense of the world around me. Through middle and high school I came to see that math and science are what shape the world and keep it moving, and I fell in love with every science subject along the way.

I've just finished my second year at MIT, where I study computer science, math, and economics. Through research, classes, and extracurriculars, I've found I have a wide range of interests: robotics, healthcare, machine learning, economics, and more. I can't wait to see where life takes me, and I hope to use my skills and interests to better the world.