Young Mind, Large Community

Kriti Shah, 25-Year Old President of a Jain Sangh

From India to Toronto, Detroit to Edmonton, and Derasar to Zoom, Kriti Shah has associated with a Jain community everywhere she’s lived. Though her house changed every time she moved cities, she has always found a home at her local Jain Sangh. While her attendance at Sangh events was initially driven by her parents’ heavy involvement with the Toronto and Detroit Sanghs, she quickly began to enjoy it on her own accord, making friends through Pathshala and other events. However, when she moved to Edmonton, AB, Canada at the age of 11, Kriti found that she missed the energy of the large Jain communities she had been a part of before. In search of that sense of home, she spent the next 12 years gradually building up a youth community, organizing events, and taking on leadership positions at the Jain Society of Alberta (JSoA). Shortly after moving to Edmonton, Kriti started a youth group in an effort to replicate the same kind of community that she had grown up with in India, Detroit, and Toronto. She energized the youth and adults of JSoA by bringing social events to their regular programming. As the youth coordinator, she, along with her team, organized activities such as game nights and a Jain and vegan Rasoi Youth Cookoff, and collaborated with other Canadian Jain societies. Soon after, she started the Pathshala program as a teacher, served as Vice President for two years, and was recently elected President of JSoA Executive Board for the 2021-2023 term at only 25 years old, becoming one of the youngest Jain Sangh presidents in North America.

As the youngest member of the JSoA Executive Board, Kriti brings a unique perspective to the table. She has learned a great deal from the older members throughout the course of her involvement — especially in the realm of maintaining Jainism’s integrity while introducing creative twists on events. She has been able to increase engagement within her own community while also increasing involvement with other Jain communities in the area as many of the Jain Sanghs are spread far apart from one another. Through YouthTalks, modeled after TED Talks, Kriti and her team were able to raise youth spirits and give them a place to learn and present on various topics. It’s been successful enough that they will now be transitioning this initiative to the entire JSoA population. In addition to youth events, they’ve also started Womens’ and Seniors’ groups to help build stronger subcommunities. This is all despite not having their own derasar to meet in (JSoA currently operates out of a local Hindu temple). With the restrictions initiated by the COVID19 pandemic, Kriti shifted focus to consistent virtual programming. While initially engagement dropped online, Kriti took this as an opportunity to strengthen their approach to social media, technology in events, and impact on the community via service events and fundraisers. Along with virtual versions of previous events, she and her team were able to bring engagement to higher levels than before! In addition to her involvement with JSoA, Kriti has been a member of the Maharaj Saheb Messages (MSM) YJA Project Team since 2018. As a project lead from 2018-2021 and team member now, she and her team have led efforts in relaying questions from American youth to Maharaj Sahebs in India, transcribing and translating answers, relaying updates from the ascetic community in India, and publishing content around major Jain festivals. Prior to MSM, Kriti had been a Local Representative for YJA and YJP, a member of the YJA Reflect (formerly Forums) team, and a member of the YJA Publications and Education Committees. Being more involved than most peers her age and one of the youngest presidents of a Jain Sangh, Kriti has learned a lot from her experience. Whether it be constructively pursuing her beliefs or seeing criticism as indication of room for improvement, Kriti attempts to always look at her life in a glass-half-full manner. She reaches back to memories of the Jain community as her source of strength during some of the loneliest times in her life, and in turn continually gives back through official and unofficial capacities. She has also never seen her commitment to her Jain community as hindering her professional development; instead she’s recognized it as an opportunity to leverage the Jain network to cultivate academic and professional opportunities. Kriti has been able to connect her professional and personal beliefs to Jainism with this role as well. With a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and now pursuing a Masters in Criminology, she believes that the principles of Anekantavad and Ahimsa have helped her approach ideas related to mental health. She has even introduced mental health practices to her Pathshala by incorporating ten minutes of meditation at the end of each class, encouraging people to think about mental wellness. To those young Jains who are interested in leadership roles in their own Sanghs, Kriti advises to get involved as little or as much as you can. She recommends volunteering, getting involved with YJA, and most importantly, finding the aspects of Jainism that you most resonate with and applying them to your life. In her future plans for the Jain Society of Alberta, Kriti wants to develop their Sangh website, bring in more youth involvement, make Pathshala stronger, have their own Derasar, and join hands with the other communities in Western Canada. With these goals in mind, Kriti has shown great success at an impressively young age.