Meet The Team
Jaskiran Kaur Rahi
Founder & CEO
Jaskiran Kaur Rahi is 15 years old and a student in Wellington. As well as being proud of her Sikh heritage, Jaskiran is also a passionate kiwi with a Number Eight Wire mindset of being able to fix or repair something with what you have to hand. This attitude has led her to found Spirit & Soul, with the vision of creating an organisation that would empower young women to be the best that they can be and help them to realise that they can do anything! The idea came about when Jaskiran went to her first coding holiday programme at a young age and was the only female there. She felt uncomfortable in this situation and didn’t want other young women to feel this way!
Jaskiran has received a New Zealand Youth Award(2019) for her work with Spirit & Soul, as well as the opportunity to speak at various events around New Zealand including the 2018 Women of Influence Forum.
When she’s not busy working to empower her peers, Jaskiran enjoys hanging out with her friends and family, she enjoying coding and robotics as well as testing her creativity with baking!
The Rahi Family
Gurjit(Dad)
Charanjit(Mum)
Manraj(Brother)
Together they make Jaskiran’s awesome supportive family. The Rahi family is always there when Jaskiran needs them, weather it be managing Spirit & Soul’s finances or a school pick-up!
Natasha Tae-Lynch
Mentor
She is: An avid animal lover, an obsessive clean freak.
She loves: Travel, outdoor walks (preferably up a mountain with an amazing view at the top), PEOPLE!
She believes: If we have the passion for it, we can do anything & everything we put our minds to.
Natasha has been Jaskiran’s mentor right from the beginning and has helped develop Spirit & Soul to the organisation it is today.
Ruth James
Mentor
Ruth is the Tech Outreach and Engage Coordinator at Xero. She is passionate about ensuring there’s a diverse pipeline of talent coming into the tech sector.
Ruth actually met Charanjit Rahi (aka CK), Jaskiran’s mum, first when they were at the YTech event Walking on Mars in Auckland - August 2018. Being the super proud mum that she is, CK talked about Jaskiran and her work with Spirit & Soul.
A few months later, Jaskiran and Ruth were planning for the next Spirit & Soul event to be hosted and sponsored in the Xero office in Wellington planned for Nov 2018.
Xero and Ruth continue to support Jaskiran and Spirit & Soul.