Children's Trust Fund
MEET THE TEAM
Celia Islam, President
Celia is a senior at George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church, Virginia. After visiting Bangladesh several times over the past decade and witnessing firsthand the poverty that many children face in rural areas of the country, Celia became inspired to be involved with CTFund. She is so thankful for the community that has provided her with great educational opportunities and hopes to provide the same for children in impoverished areas.
Besides CTFund, Celia enjoys engaging in service projects by working with her school's Key Club and volunteering at the local hospital and residential home. Celia is also very interested in music and enjoys playing the violin in her school orchestra, the GCM Chamber Group, and the American Youth Philharmonic. In her free time, Celia enjoys watching movies and spending time with her family and friends.
Joshna Seelam, Vice-President
Joshna is a senior at George C. Marshall HS and an IB Diploma candidate. She is a highly motivated, dedicated, trustworthy individual who is eager for new responsibilities. During her visits to India, she witnessed many children suffering from starvation, malnutrition and life-threatening diseases such as Malaria and Dengue fever. She has always wanted to help these kids who live on streets with no proper guidance or nutrition.
Apart from CTFund, Joshna enjoys pursuing her interest in medical field by leading her school's Medical Science Club, where she and her peers engage in Medical Conferences and visits such as Open Heart Surgeries. She is also a strong believer in giving back to the community. Some of her volunteer activities include serving as a Junior Achievement mentor, library volunteer, shadowing her dentist, and teaching her fellow students through Math Mentors. Her hobbies are Bollywood dancing, badminton matches and attending family reunions.
Muneera Hassan
Director of Public Affairs
Muneera is a senior at Woodson High School in Fairfax, VA. Muneera is a rising senior at Woodson High School in Fairfax, VA. She likes slam poetry, science, cats, the Boston Celtics and blogging. In her spare time, she enjoys trying to longboard, riding her bike, making things, baking cupcakes and discovering new music. One day soon, Muneera hopes to publish a book and possibly go into cognitive research, but for now, she is content where she is.
Tiffany Chong
Director of Fundraising
Tiffany is a senior at George C. Marshall High School. She enjoys singing, volunteering, and playing volleyball. While it may be simplistic, she loves to see the smiles on people's faces because it reminds her of all the happiness and love people are capable of -- plus, smiling is contagious!
Tiffany is involved in many extracurricular service activities, such as Key Club. Her belief is to love and live every second and to truly make a difference. What better way to do that than getting involved with the Children's Trust Fund? She believes in the Children's Trust Fund's mission, and has complete confidence that its contributions to underdeveloped countries will better our global community.
Caitlyn Carpio
Director of Finance
Caitlyn is a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA. Having been very blessed in life, Caitlyn feels strongly about giving back and lending others a helping hand. She was a member of the Children of the Light Dancers for 11 years where she loved going to nursing homes, churches and homeless shelters. She tutors elementary school kids through Kids Are Scientists Too and serves as a Project BEST Expansion Director. When she heard about Children’s Trust Fund she really wanted to get involved in order to help reach kids from all over the world, not just those in her local community.
Apart from serving others, Caitlyn absolutely loves music! She has had the great privilege of playing in the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and TJ’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble. She also enjoys leadership and has been a part of TJ’s student government since Freshman year.
Farah Kabir
Director of Development
Farah is a junior at Richard Montgomery HS in Rockville, MD and is in the IB Diploma Program. She is blessed to be typing this from her laptop in an air-conditioned two-story home in Maryland, as thousands of people in her parents' motherland do not have access to clean drinking water, let alone any of her luxuries. She hopes to work with Teach for Bangladesh when she has graduated college, and in the meantime, is inspired to help fight poverty through the CTFund.
In addition, she runs cross-country/track for her school and is pursuing a black belt in Tang Soo Do and Jiujitsu. She also plays for her school's It's Academic quizbowl team. At her local mosque, she has been teaching first and second grade students for about four years. In her free time, she reads anything and everything and sometimes likes to watch movies.
Alexandra Cummings
Director of Activities
Alexandra is a senior at George C. Marshall High School. She often finds that she enjoys numerous things. She adores animals and wants to interact with them whenever possible. As for her other interests, she enjoys composing songs on the piano, interacting with others, traveling, learning new facts, etc. She is fairly open-minded and is willing to try new things. She also loves to help others in any way possible!
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Syahirah Isham
Board Member
Syahirah is a student at Nexus International School in Putrajaya, Malaysia. She is involved in many school sports teams including football and badminton. She enjoys helping out and giving to her community. As a result, she is involved in many extracurricular service activities such as Furry Friends, where she raises funds for animals, and Nexus Community, where she teaches Myanmar refugees English. Besides these activities, she is also very interested in music and enjoys playing both the piano and the violin for her school's string ensemble.
Syahirah believes that education is extremely important because it is what makes us realize what there is in the world, helps us solves everyday problems quickly and efficiently, and prevents the possibility of false information influencing us to make the wrong decisions. In addition, it helps us build a better future. For these reasons, she decided to become involved with Children's Trust Fund as a board member and representative of her school.
Hannah Seo
Board Member
Hannah is a student at Gyeonggi-Suwon International School in Suwon, South Korea.
May Saito
Board Member
May is a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA. When she is not helping out with Children's Trust Fund, she enjoys playing the piano, watching cheesy movies, and hanging out with her friends and family.
Shruthi Ashok
Board Member
Shruthi is a senior at George C. Marshall High School. She loves helping people, especially those in underdeveloped countries around the world, especially because she has lived in India and knows what many people there go through everyday. Besides working with Children's Trust Fund, Shruthi also participates in DECA and FBLA. She is also a member of other clubs such as Key Club and GLI, which is another club that helps people in other countries, such as India. She also manages soccer at Marshall High School and loves sports, particularly cricket. This year, she will be implementing a lot of ideas for her DECA manual that involves helping the people in India who were affected by the recent flooding which was devastating.