Hope Hearted was started by four high school students who
About Us
Hope Hearted was originally a project one of the co-founders began while volunteering at a local San Jose hospital. The project involved redistributing supplies that the hospital's Materials Department was discarding due to being close to expiration. A couple of the other volunteers joined the effort to turn the effort into a nonprofit called Hope Hearted so they could begin collecting donations and distribute the kits at local food banks and shelters. During the Pandemic, the unhoused population was hit hard as shelters struggled to accommodate everyone and living conditions made exposure to the virus was inevitable. Hope Hearted worked to support local shelters and food banks by providing masks and various hygiene products. Over the years, Hope Hearted has remained a volunteer-run organization. We have partnered with other mutual aid groups to add clothing, food, dental hygiene and community resources to our distributions in encampments, free clinics, food banks, and shelters. Our high school chapters have allowed us to spread Hope Hearted's campaign to Los Angeles County. The chapters hold packing and distribution events as well as meetings on their campuses to spread awareness about the housing crisis in California.
Our Mission
We believe that access to healthcare is a basic human right regardless of housing status or documentation. As we grow, we will always aim to support our community with health resources to the best of our ability.
Our Team
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Asavari Gowda
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Asavari began volunteering the summer before going into the seventh grade at her local food bank. Since then she has developed a strong passion for community service and healthcare by getting involved with humanitarian organizations in her community. During her freshman year in high school, she began volunteering at a local San Jose hospital, which is where she got involved with the Sunshine Cart, a volunteer-run hospitality program for the patients. After noticing that many basic medical supplies were being thrown out due to regulations despite being in usable condition, Asavari worked with the materials department to donate the supplies at the local food bank. Almost a year later, she teamed up with Chloe, Quynh, and Heather to turn that project into a nonprofit, now known as Hope Hearted! Asavari is now a senior majoring in Biology at Siena College, and will later study medicine at Albany Medical College.
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Quynh Nguyen
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Quynh joined the hospital volunteer program as a sophomore in high school, and was deeply moved by the patients she helped. When Chloe left for college, Quynh eagerly stepped up to lead the program. Inspired to further help the unhoused population, Quynh started a menstrual supply project that provided hygienic necessities for unhoused women. Quynh graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2023 and is currently studying dentistry at California Northstate University College of Dental Medicine.
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Chloe Duckworth
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As a freshman in high school, Chloe founded the original volunteer program at a local Bay Area hospital called the Sunshine Cart, a hospitality and patient advocacy program that visited patients throughout the hospital. Over her four years as lead volunteer, she trained many other high school students to join her team, including Asavari and Quynh. She pioneered many special projects to help unhoused patients at the hospital, including a clothes closet to ensure no patient had to be discharged in a hospital gown. Having graduated from University of Southern California with a degree in computational neuroscience, Chloe aims to build a career around the intersection of neuroscience, medicine, and technology to help humanity on a large scale. Chloe is currently the co-founder and CEO of Valence Vibrations, an emotion AI startup delivering conversational intelligence for video conferencing.
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Heather Duckworth
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Heather began working at a special needs daycare center to help care for the special needs community in San Jose as a high school sophomore. She continued to volunteer there as she founded the Mini Mermaids Dancing Club, a nonprofit based on instilling confidence in young girls through dance. Heather became involved in Hope Hearted as a way to further her support for those in need and fulfill her desire to better her community. Heather is currently a senior at University of California Los Angeles, majoring in business economics. She is looking forward to developing her career in corporate banking after graduating in 2025.
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Cheyenne Sadeghi
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Cheyenne wanted to help the local unhoused community near his college after seeing their exploitation during the pandemic firsthand, which is why he began working with Hope Hearted to extend our impact. Cheyenne leads corporate partnerships for the supply chain, including our recent Sketchers and Oral B partnerships, to get more kits in the hands of those that need them. He previously helped fundraise over $10,000 for Hearts with Hope, a nonprofit funding cardiothoracic surgeries for underprivileged children in Mexico. Cheyenne is currently a computer science graduate student at Stanford University and also holds a bachelor’s of science in mathematics from Stanford. Cheyenne plans to go to medical school to be able to further advocate for marginalized people in medicine and biomedical research.
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