Jai Kanodia, "All it Took Was a Bag of Potato Chips"
Jai is a 4th year Architecture student at Carnegie Mellon, studying architecture, along with a minor in Business Studies. He currently serves as the Founder and President of TEDxCMU, as well as the Innovation Curator at TEDxPittsburgh. He calls himself a wanderlust, having hit his 40th country this summer. He also has worked in a variety of backgrounds, from helping high school kids apply to college, to working on a social-urban design build in Guatemala working alongside interns from all around the world. In his free time, he is often trying to meet people, exploring the city of Pittsburgh, delving into culinary experiences, or binge-eating pizza while watching FRIENDS.
To get to where he has gotten, he has been through a lot of ups and downs. Jai will be sharing his story of how a bag of potato chips turned out to be the most life-turning single tangible object in his transition from childhood to adulthood. He mentioned it was particularly hard for him to showcase his downfalls on a public pedestal, but strongly believes that if it keeps people around him from making the same mistakes he made, its purpose would have been served.