Raj Parekh grew up in a small neighborhood in the very big city of Mumbai, India. Only about a quarter of residents in his community go on to college, but with Parekh, the number of credentials earned has taken a sharp upturn. He is graduating from UCI this year with degrees from the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences, the School of Social Sciences and the School of Physical Sciences. The triple major also earned a minor in innovation & entrepreneurship from The Paul Merage School of Business. “To accomplish the goals I have in mind, I knew a truly multidisciplinary approach would be required,” Parekh says. “From Day One in college, I prioritized growth and learning and kept adding majors until I knew I had the combination I needed to develop a strong framework to solve 21st-century social impact issues.” Putting his classroom learning into practice, he founded the UCI branch of 180 Degrees Consulting, the world’s largest student-driven social impact organization, where he and his team designed a legal services program for 100 foster children, matched 396 underprivileged youths with adult mentors in Orange County, and devised a plan to improve access to care for more than 70 Alzheimer’s patients. His next move is to become a business technology analyst at Deloitte Consulting while mulling over his grad school options.

– Brian Bell, UCI