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Young Upper St. Clair altruist seeks title to help spread positive message

By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 4 min read
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A wrong can makes two rights, as Krisha Monpara will tell you.

During her just-completed senior year at Upper St. Clair High School, she and other members of the service group Kids Helping Kids traveled to the Dominican Republic, where they promptly got started on their assignment to build an aqueduct to carry water through an impoverished neighborhood.

“We woke up the next day thinking that we only had to finish off a little bit,” she recalled. “And they said, ‘Oh, you built it on the wrong side.’ So we had to rebuild it. But it ended up working out, because the one that we built on the wrong side, they just turned into a sewage system.

“So we ended up doing two things for that community.”

Helping others pretty much has been part of Krisha’s life for as long as she can remember, thanks in large part to the examples set by her parents, Pravin and Rekha, and family members in their native India.

Another of her own examples is sponsoring a child for about $30 a month through the relief, development and advocacy organization World Vision International.

“For my Sweet 16,” she said about her birthday party in June 2016, “I got all of this money. I thought to myself, I don’t really need it. So I was trying to think of things to do, and I found that.”

Those types of experiences should figure prominently as Krisha, the reigning Miss Pennsylvania Teen America, pursues the title of 2018 Miss Teen America. The pageant, scheduled for July 17-21 in San Antonio, Texas, includes scholarship awards.

According to its website, Miss Teen America Inc., which is not associated with the Miss America Organization, strives for “creating a platform for young ladies to feel confident in who they are, as well as show their talents and love of service.”

“I’m not very much of a ‘girly girl,'” Krisha will admit. “I don’t wear makeup every day. I actually rarely ever wear makeup.”

And so in entering, she was looking more toward the platform aspect, as a means of spreading her message about embracing diversity and overcoming stereotypes. She has plenty of firsthand knowledge.

Maybe someone meant well by telling her something like, “You know, you’re really pretty. For an Indian.” Or: “Oh, yeah. Your house doesn’t smell at all. For an Indian.”

“It never really sat well with me, but I used to be one of those people who just let it go,” Kirsha said. “This year brought about a whole lot of change in that aspect. I realized that if I wasn’t going to stand up for myself, no one else would.”

She now has the opportunity.

“I definitely want to use my platform to show that it doesn’t matter what you look like, what your skin color may be, if you’re skinny, fat, short, tall: You can always be beautiful to yourself,” she said. “You can always be a role model to others.”

With a long list of high school accomplishments – such as serving as captain of both the girls’ tennis team and speech and debate team, treasurer of Future Business Leaders of America and the National Honor Society, and chairing the fundraising MiniTHON to battle childhood cancer – Krisha heads to the University of Michigan. Her brother, Kevin, is entering his senior year there.

She plans to major in economics and then pursue an advanced degree in either law or medicine.

“Either way,” she said, “I want to end up making my own nonprofit.”

And there’s nothing wrong with that.

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