A reporter interviews Intersect Fund trainer and CFO Ragavan Sree
At the Intersect Fund, Ragavan Sree teaches clients to write business plans and helps manage our finances.
He arrived on staff in the fall of 2008 with a mission: improve society by making sure everyone gets the same opportunity for economic advancement.
Inequality, Sree says, is what plunged his native Sri Lanka into a decades-long civil war that killed thousands.
When the country gained independence from British colonial rule following World War II, the outlook for the Tamil — the ethnic minority whom colonial officials had favored— grew bleak.
For years, the Tamil were denied access to jobs and education. Discrimination dashed young adults’ hopes of achieving the economic security their parents enjoyed.
Years of marginalization, Sree says, pushed some Tamil to form a rebel army — known as the Tamil Tigers — that fought the government for over 20 years.
Sree spent his childhood in Singapore and New York City — away from the stark disparity of his home country.
When he returned for a United Nations internship in 2005, he was surprised to see the government and the rebels working together. The Indian Ocean Tsunami, which pummeled the country several months prior, had left in its wake an inspiring — albeit temporary — sense of unity.
Sree found the cooperation heartening, but he regretted that it took a natural disaster for the warring factions to put aside their differences.
Viewing prosperity as a safeguard against the strife that ravaged Sri Lanka, Sree vowed to fight for economic opportunity. The Intersect Fund gave him the chance to do it.
A Rutgers senior, Sree will join the U.S. Army after he graduates. In July, he will travel to Fort Benning, Ga. for training as a specialist infantryman.
