This week, we’re celebrating ISU student Ritesh Yadav, who won a United Nations Association of the USA ad campaign competition with his “No Plastic Straws” campaign.

Ritesh came from Nepal to earn an undergraduate degree. He is majoring in Economics and minoring in Mathematics, but he says that he did not settle on this field of interest until his Junior year! Clearly, he has found it to be a good fit. Now, Ritesh plans to further his education to a doctorate in Economics. He is also the president of the Economics Club, holds a board seat for the UN-USA chapter on campus, and is currently working at Bengal Solutions, a business consulting group that consults for business and economic developmental frameworks for Idaho.

This was Ritesh’s first time entering the competition for UN-USA, and he had some tough competition. Only 8 out of 20,000 applicants were selected to compete. When asked why he thought his pitch was so successful, Ritesh said he believes it was because his was the only implementation of the “No Plastic Straws” practice at a community, versus global, level. READ MORE