In a mo­men­tous com­mu­nity en­gage­ment event, the US Army team wit­nessed a siz­able sec­tion of Sikh youth and their fam­i­lies, ea­gerly gath­er­ing in­for­ma­tion about non-com­bat mil­i­tary ca­reers like in Tech­nol­ogy, Cy­ber­se­cu­rity, Med­i­cine, Clin­i­cal, Vet­eri­nary, En­gi­neer­ing, Law En­force­ment, and more dur­ing a unique event or­ga­nized by the A Lit­tle Hap­pi­ness Foun­da­tion. A WSN Ex­clu­sive.

The US Army Re­serve Info Ses­sion, held specif­i­cally for re­cent grad­u­ates and their guardians at Gur­d­wara Fre­mont, Cal­i­for­nia, sought to de­mys­tify the process of en­list­ing and high­light the myr­iad op­por­tu­ni­ties within the US Army Re­serve.

“It’s not just about com­bat; it’s about carv­ing out a di­verse range of ca­reers -this mes­sage res­onated pow­er­fully amongst the con­gre­ga­tion.  It’s about show­ing our youth the vast ex­panse of
pos­si­bil­i­ties, from Tech­nol­ogy and med­i­cine to law en­force­ment, within the Army Re­serve.”

On No­vem­ber 19, 2023, the Fre­mont Gur­d­wara wit­nessed a trans­for­ma­tive ca­reer coun­sel­ing event. The US Army Re­serve Info sym­po­sium, a joint ven­ture be­tween ALHF USA and the U.S. Army Re­serve, aimed to il­lu­mi­nate the myr­iad non-com­bat ca­reer op­por­tu­ni­ties avail­able within the Army Re­serve.

“Our vi­sion ex­tends be­yond mere ca­reer ad­vice; it’s about open­ing doors to di­verse pro­fes­sions, from Tech­nol­ogy to Vet­eri­nary Sci­ence,” shared Ra­j­pal Singh, Pres­i­dent of ALHF USA.

The US Army info ses­sion, marked by a vig­or­ous ex­change be­tween the Army rep­re­sen­ta­tives and the at­ten­dees at the Gur­d­wara Fre­mont, Cal­i­for­nia cul­mi­nated in as­pi­rants com­plet­ing forms for in­for­ma­tion and fol­low-up com­mu­ni­ca­tion. This pi­o­neer­ing ini­tia­tive by the A Lit­tle Hap­pi­ness Foun­da­tion USA is per­haps the first con­certed step in tak­ing US Army ca­reers to the US Sikh pop­u­la­tion.

Three U.S. Army of­fi­cers led the charge in this in­for­ma­tive ses­sion, in­clud­ing Lieu­tenant Ja­son Doll, who em­pha­sized, “Our aim is not just to re­cruit sol­diers; we’re here to nur­ture fu­ture lead­ers in var­i­ous fields.” He high­lighted an ar­ray of ca­reers – Cy­ber­se­cu­rity, En­gi­neer­ing, and Law En­force­ment, among oth­ers – un­der­lin­ing the Army Re­serve’s com­mit­ment to ed­u­ca­tional ad­vance­ment through com­pre­hen­sive schol­ar­ship pro­grams.

“Our aim is not just to re­cruit sol­diers; we’re here to nur­ture fu­ture lead­ers in var­i­ous fields.”

Lieu­tenant Ja­son Doll, US Army

The hands-on ex­pe­ri­ence with an ad­vanced com­bat Humvee was more than just a dis­play of mil­i­tary prowess. It was a metaphor for the so­phis­ti­cated, tech­nol­ogy-dri­ven facets of the Army Re­serve, show­ing a path less trod­den but im­mensely re­ward­ing.

“The Sikhs are a mar­tial race and mil­i­tary-re­lated ca­reers have their charm to the Sikh pop­u­la­tion. Even more than that, be­ing a US Army Re­serve is like hav­ing the best of both worlds.”

The re­sponse from the Sikh youth and their par­ents was over­whelm­ing. Queries poured in, re­flect­ing a keen in­ter­est in un­der­stand­ing the Army Re­serve’s of­fer­ings. “This is not about pick­ing up arms; it’s about pick­ing up skills that will shape your fu­ture,” stated Sargeant Ja­son Doll, dis­pelling com­mon mis­con­cep­tions about mil­i­tary ca­reers.

Sar­gent Ja­son Doll noted the ses­sion’s suc­cess, stat­ing, “It was an in­ter­ac­tive and fruit­ful event, par­tic­u­larly the di­a­logues with the Sikh youth. Of­fi­cer Ja­son con­veyed that a par­tic­i­pant had ini­ti­ated the en­list­ment process, with as­pi­ra­tions to pur­sue a med­ical ca­reer within the Army Re­serve.

His mes­sage is clear: “The Army Re­serve is a trove of un­tapped op­por­tu­ni­ties, from home pur­chases to start­ing busi­nesses. It’s about serv­ing the na­tion while build­ing a per­sonal fu­ture.”

This event marks a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in the en­gage­ment be­tween the Sikh com­mu­nity and the US Army, set­ting a prece­dent for fu­ture col­lab­o­ra­tion and open­ing doors for the youth to serve in new and mean­ing­ful ca­pac­i­ties.

The fer­vor and en­gage­ment of the Sikh youth with the US Army team’s out­reach pro­gram were pal­pa­ble in the air.

Ra­j­pal Singh, re­flected on the gath­er­ing’s spirit: “It’s a proud mo­ment for our com­mu­nity. These young minds are the fu­ture, and to­day, they are step­ping up to be the change-mak­ers.”

The Army’s re­cruit­ment team, en­gaged in a ro­bust di­a­logue with par­tic­i­pants, fielded a bar­rage of in­quiries from cu­ri­ous par­ents and their chil­dren.

“It’s a proud mo­ment for our com­mu­nity. These young minds are the fu­ture, and to­day, they are step­ping up to be the change-mak­ers.”

Ra­j­pal Singh, Pres­i­dent, A Lit­tle Hap­pi­ness Foun­da­tion, USA

“See­ing such en­thu­si­asm from the Sikh com­mu­nity is truly in­spir­ing,” one team mem­ber of the US Army re­marked. “Their will­ing­ness to learn about the Army Re­serve and con­sider a fu­ture with us is a sign of great things to come.”

Ra­j­pal Singh, em­pha­siz­ing the foun­da­tion’s com­mit­ment, stated, “Our col­lab­o­ra­tion with the U.S. Army Re­serve is a step to­wards un­veil­ing a world of op­por­tu­ni­ties that go be­yond con­ven­tional roles. It’s about show­ing our youth the vast ex­panse of pos­si­bil­i­ties, from IT to le­gal ser­vices, within the Army Re­serve.”

“Our aim is sin­gu­lar – to equip our youth with the re­sources to make in­formed ca­reer choices,”

Taran Singh, COO, ALHF USA

Mem­bers of the Gur­d­wara con­gre­ga­tion ex­pressed their ex­cite­ment about the pro­gram’s out­come. “The en­ergy and de­ter­mi­na­tion of our youth to in­te­grate ser­vice to their coun­try with their as­pi­ra­tions, such as in health­care, is truly up­lift­ing,” com­mented a Gur­d­wara mem­ber.

The ALHF US­A’s ap­proach, com­bin­ing ed­u­ca­tional re­sources with pro­fes­sional men­tor­ship, cre­ates a ro­bust sup­port sys­tem. Their fo­cus on di­rect men­tor­ship, es­pe­cially in the med­ical field, con­nects as­pir­ing pro­fes­sion­als with ex­pe­ri­enced men­tors, bridg­ing the gap be­tween aca­d­e­mic learn­ing and prac­ti­cal ap­pli­ca­tion.

More­over, ALHF US­A’s vi­sion of ex­tend­ing this out­reach to var­i­ous Gur­d­waras across North­ern Cal­i­for­nia re­flects their ded­i­ca­tion to com­mu­nity em­pow­er­ment. “We want to en­sure that our com­mu­ni­ty’s chil­dren have timely ac­cess to re­sources that em­power them ed­u­ca­tion­ally and pro­fes­sion­ally,” shared ALHF Pres­i­dent Ra­j­pal Singh.

“It is AL­H­F’s mis­sion to en­sure that our com­mu­ni­ty’s chil­dren have timely ac­cess to re­sources that em­power them ed­u­ca­tion­ally and pro­fes­sion­ally,”

As this ini­tia­tive gains mo­men­tum, it’s clear that ALHF USA and the U.S. Army Re­serve are not just open­ing doors to ca­reers; they are shap­ing fu­ture lead­ers who will thrive in di­verse fields. This part­ner­ship is a tes­ta­ment to the power of col­lab­o­ra­tion, vi­sion, and the re­lent­less pur­suit of em­pow­er­ing the youth.

ALHF US­A’s roadmap is am­bi­tious yet fo­cused. It plans to repli­cate this suc­cess­ful model across North­ern Cal­i­for­ni­a’s Gur­d­waras, tap­ping into the rich po­ten­tial of the Sikh com­mu­nity. Their strate­gic ex­pan­sion into med­ical fields, con­nect­ing youth with Sikh pro­fes­sion­als, fur­ther un­der­scores their com­mit­ment to holis­tic ca­reer de­vel­op­ment.

This ini­tia­tive not only paves the way for Sikh youth to ex­plore mean­ing­ful ca­reer op­tions but also en­hances the di­ver­sity of the US Army Re­serve. 

ALHF US­A’s decade-long com­mit­ment to bridg­ing ed­u­ca­tional and pro­fes­sional gaps in the com­mu­nity stands as a tes­ta­ment to its vi­sion. “Our aim is sin­gu­lar – to equip our youth with the re­sources to make in­formed ca­reer choices,” re­flects Taran Singh, COO of ALHF USA.

This part­ner­ship with the U.S. Army Re­serve is not just a step but a gi­ant leap in re­defin­ing ca­reer path­ways, show­cas­ing a mul­ti­tude of pos­si­bil­i­ties ly­ing within the realms of the mil­i­tary, yet be­yond the bat­tle­field.