Junior Adithi Nythruva is very passionate about making a difference in her community. By valuing female empowerment and racial equality, she is working hard to bring lasting change.

Founded by Malavika Kannan in 2018, the Homegirl Project is s a non-profit organization that focuses on “empowering girls and non-binary youth of color through training, mentorship, and community.” The project can be found on all social media platforms, with almost 4k followers on Instagram. Nythruva heard about the project and decided to apply in 2020. “My friend was the one who actually founded the organization. She’s a writer and activist herself, so she was the one who founded the Home Girl Project . . . She wanted to really get those people of color out there, so I joined the organization by finding out about it . . . I applied, and I got in,” said Nythruva. 

Now, Nythruva is part of the Programs Committee. One of six different committees, the Homegirl Project also includes the Finance Committee, Editorial Committee, Fellowship Committee, Marketing Committee, and Operations Committee. 

Nythruva focuses on the digital marketing aspect. “I help plan social media events. I also design graphics that they post on their Insta page,” said Nythruva. “It’s not a full time job at all. I’ve actually been working a bit more on it. The best part is it’s on my own time. I do the research, and I basically make graphics depending on it.”

In addition, Homegirl Project works to give individual women of color a platform through their Fellowship Program. “Basically, we help them to create their own project for activism so they can help out their community. It’s like a mentorship. They help to train these girls to do these activism projects,” said Nythruva.

The Homegirl Project is focusing on upcoming events as well. “We’ve actually been working on something for the election coming up . . . I’m doing voter suppression graphics. I’m basically doing research on the states with the most voter suppression, . . . bringing awareness to that, . . . and other people trying to vote and getting that ability to,” said Nythruva.

COVID-19 has prevented Homegirl Project from pursuing its normal activities. “We do rallies, those are the more in-person events. Due to COVID, my work has been kind of virtual. Right now we’re doing stuff that’s virtual but hopefully we can get back to in-person. I believe we’re planning something in New York next semester, so hopefully I can do something with that. The Executive Director at the moment has actually done marches in Washington DC, so she has actually done a lot for the Home Girl Project. We want to be able to advocate in person too. I think doing it online is good because a lot of people use media these days online,” said Nythruva.

Nythruva sees herself growing to higher levels of responsibility in the future. She hopes to become the Executive Director of the Programs Committee, first gaining experience within her own committee before branching out.