Brown Women’s Network

Maya F. Laur '24 is originally from Wendell, Massachusetts, and will be receiving an A.B. in modern culture and media, and an Engaged Scholarship Certificate with a focus in art, a tool for social change.

She is a writer, artist, and activist with a passion for community and social change. During her time at Brown, Laur has volunteered as an editor and consultant for the Tenderloin Opera, a theater company by and for unhoused individuals and their allies; served as a storytelling fellow, using poetry and prose to spotlight grassroots movements for immigrant justice, prison reform, disability justice, and homeless rights around Providence; and worked as a Brown Outdoor Leadership Training (BOLT) mentor, leading backpacking trips for underclassmen in the White Mountains. 

In her four years at Brown, Laur has also served as a sexual health and peer education advocate at the MET school, a research intern for Suffolk University’s Women and Incarceration Project, and a community-based learning and research fellow for Brown University’s Anthropology of Homelessness course. Most recently, Laur partnered with Brown students and Providence residents of diverse immigrant experiences to workshop and produce an original play, “Yearning to Breathe Free,” as an intergenerational, intercontinental reimagining of immigration stories; a call for solidarity across centuries, continents, borders and backgrounds; and a vision of a world where all are welcome. 

In her free time, Laur can often be found embarking on Polar Plunge excursions to Barrington Beach, leading musical Shabbat services with fellow Jewish women or watching the sunrise with her friends. 

Laur will be working at an inn in Newport this summer, before attending a social-justice theater program in Ecuador in the following school year. In her life beyond Brown, she hopes to continue to harness art as a tool for social change, be that on Broadway, in the streets or beyond. 

Isha Ponugoti '25 is from Carmel, Indiana, and will receive an A.B. in computer science-economics with a certificate in entrepreneurship in December 2024. Through her contributions to Brown, Ponugoti has leveraged technology and entrepreneurship to drive social impact and build community.

This year, she founded the University’s Girls Who Code chapter and quickly grew its membership to 60 students, building a robust community of women in tech both at Brown and in Providence. As president, she led her 10-person executive board to establish a mentorship program for Providence middle schoolers; she also designed and taught coding lessons to 20 students weekly at Sophia Academy, an all-girls charter school.

To further her love for teaching, Ponugoti has been a teaching assistant (TA) for many computer science courses, most recently serving as a head TA for Brown’s new foundational course on AI. By the end of her tenure, the number of female TAs increased from zero to a near-majority, largely due to her active efforts in recruiting qualified female candidates to ensure gender diversity in computer science education.

As a recipient of the Social Innovation Fellowship (SIF), she worked with Edesia, a social enterprise fighting malnutrition. In collaboration with another SIF fellow, Ponugoti spent the past year building a deep learning algorithm to more quickly and accurately detect Alzheimer's disease. In 2022, she took her interests abroad, working at a cleantech startup through Brown’s Signature Sweden Entrepreneurship program.

Moreover, Ponugoti has enriched campus life through her leadership across diverse areas. While vice president of the South Asian Students Association, Brown’s largest cultural organization, she led initiatives with Brown Cooking Club, RISD and more. As a transfer and resumed undergraduate education (RUE) peer advisor, she facilitated non-traditional students’ transition to Brown. Further, as a tour guide and admissions rep, she shared her love for Brown with hundreds of prospective students. 

Looking ahead, Ponugoti plans to continue exploring the intersection of tech, innovation, and meaningful social change