About Me
Hi, I'm Akshan.
I live in Howard County, Maryland.
I like to think.
student • advocacy • research • policy
I'm interested in the places where policy, economics, civic life, and storytelling overlap. Most of my projects start with a question that bothers me enough to do something about it. This site is an archive of the things I've built, the questions I've chased, and the people I've been lucky enough to work with.
Here are some things I believe:
Put people first.
We all bleed red.
Live to be human.
Work
Four places I spend my time. Open one for the longer version.
-
4,000+students a year100+educators trained
Fully implemented in one of Maryland's most competitive school districts, and built alongside Act to Change (the largest AAPI anti-bullying nonprofit in America) and The Asian American Foundation. I presented it at the Youth Summit in LA and published a peer-indexed policy brief.
aapimirror.org ↗ -
35+staff I lead$25koperating budget10M+web impressions
I launched the Project Incubation Program, a Y Combinator for nonprofits, and lead development for the organization.
yipinstitute.org ↗ -
40+interns led20+policy reports
I also research and write briefs and testimony for Delegate Wu, and launched a youth district outreach program.
-
58k+students represented84students surveyed
Launched multilingual communications, turned a student survey into district recommendations, and revised district Equity Policy 1080.
The rest is in the drawer.
Some days that went well
- Maryland Public Forum Debate State Champion
- Tournament of Champions Qualifier
- Congressional Essay Contest National Winner
- C-SPAN StudentCam Honorable Mention '25
- NSDA Nationals Qualifier
- NCFL Nationals Qualifier
- Scholastic Gold Key in Poetry
- 1600 SAT superscore
Rooms I was lucky to be in
- Coolidge Senator '26
- Notre Dame Leadership Seminars '26
- Act to Change Youth Ambassador '26
- AAJA JCamp '25
- Georgetown SFS Future Global Leaders Fellow '25
- General Tommy Franks Institute Four Star Leader '25
Media Archive
Film & writing
-
A Fair Chance
C-SPAN · 2025
Documentary on issues in education; StudentCam 2025 Honorable Mention.
-
Local teens with national concerns win C-SPAN video competition
Baltimore Fishbowl
Coverage of the StudentCam winners, including A Fair Chance.
-
Electric guitars to bouzoukis: how Seattle's musicians persist despite high living costs
AAJA JCamp '25
Feature on Seattle's musicians and the city's cost of living.
-
Indian American techie aims to serve in Georgia's State Senate through Sevā
Yuan Media
Profile of a young candidate for Georgia State Senate running on the principle of Sevā, selfless service.
Research
-
The AAPI Mirror: A Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Framework for Inclusive History
EdArXiv · OSF Preprints
The peer-indexed policy brief behind AAPI Mirror.
-
The Impact of Gamification on Student Engagement and Learning in Science: A Study on Team Jeopardy
TALES
A study of how a team Jeopardy format affects engagement and learning in science classes.
Contact/Social
Email: akshanranasinghe@gmail.com
LinkedIn: akshan-ranasinghe