Meet Founder & President, Ananya Nagendra!

Ananya Nagendra is the founder and CEO of the Letters of Light Foundation, a 501(c)(3) working to give all cancer patients support and access to mental health care. Going to chemotherapy appointments with her mother made her consistently see how a terrifying number of patients don't receive any support as they go through treatment. So, Ananya became determined to offer support in any way she could. Ananya soon noticed that letter writing is so rare nowadays, the chances of receiving a heartfelt, handwritten letter being close to zero. Through seeing this, she realized letters are a special way for students of all ages to empower patients while also gaining cancer awareness education. Letters of Light has grown to become so much more through its free preventive healthcare information sessions for high school and college students, as well as the Books of Light initiative, which provides underfunded oncology center with access to education on mental wellness during cancer treatment, support resources, diet plans, and more. Partnering with social workers and oncology care organizations worldwide, Letters of Light collaborates with Baylor Scott & White, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Methodist Health, Children’s Medical, Texas Oncology, Kits to Heart, and others, with the goal of one day providing comprehensive support to all cancer patients throughout their treatments. Ananya has been named a 2026 Coca-Cola Scholar Semifinalist, Riley's Way Call for Kindness Fellow, Chipotle Mexican Grill Do Good Grant recipient, Volunteer McKinney Youth Leader of the Year 2025, and has received special recognition from the Dallas Mayor. Most recently, Ananya gave the keynote address at the 2025 Survive & Thrive Texas Oncology Foundation conference, making her TXO Foundation's youngest speaker ever, and has been named a Point of Light Honoree. Ananya has now been driving Letters of Light for almost three years, making it her life's goal to get more and more people into remission while teaching the youth about the importance of community support.

For all media/speaking inquiries, email peshlettersoflight@gmail.com.

Meet Our Team & What We Do!

We are a student-run organization and have curated a systematic approach to auditing letters and have written our organization's letter guidelines for letter donations from volunteers! The letter auditing process consists of volunteers writing letters at our letter-writing events then filling out a check-in form to help us keep track of the number of letters written in total. Then, the letter auditors are given the letters to go through and ensure our Letters of Light letter guidelines are met for patient donations. You can view our letter guidelines below!