Bobby Jindal

Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (born June 10, 1971) is an American politician who is the 55th and current governor of Louisiana and the vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
Jindal was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to immigrants from India. Prior to entering politics, Jindal studied for a Bachelor of Science in biology and public policy at Brown University from 1988 to 1991 and then a Master of Letters in political science from New College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. He worked for McKinsey & Company and interned for Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana. In 1996, Gov. Murphy Foster appointed Jindal secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, and in 1999 he was appointed president of the University of Louisiana System. In 2001, Jindal was appointed as the principal adviser to Tommy Thompson, the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services by the 43rd President, George W. Bush.

He first ran for governor in 2003 and won a plurality in the nonpartisan blanket primary but lost in the general election to the Democratic candidate, Kathleen Blanco. He then won a seat in the United States House of Representatives in the 2004 elections. The second Indian American in Congress, he was re-elected in 2006. He ran for governor again in 2007 and secured an outright majority in the first round of balloting; in doing so, he became the first Indian American governor in the United States. He was re-elected in a landslide in 2011. On June 24, 2015, via Twitter, Jindal announced his presidential campaign.

Early life and professional career

Jindal was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Amar and Raj Jindal, immigrants from Punjab, India, who came to the U.S. six months before he was born. Jindal attended Baton Rouge Magnet High School, graduating in 1988 at the top of his class. While in high school, he competed in tennis tournaments, and started a computer newsletter, a retail candy business, and a mail-order software company. He spent his free time working in the stands at LSU football games. Jindal was one of 50 students nationwide admitted to the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME) at Brown University, guaranteeing him a place in medical school. Jindal completed majors in biology and public policy. He graduated in 1991 at the age of 20, with honors in both majors. Jindal was named to the 1992 USA Today All-USA Academic Team. He applied to and was accepted by both Harvard Medical School and Yale Law School, but studied at New College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. He received an M.Litt. degree in political science with an emphasis in health policy from the University of Oxford in 1994, where the subject of his thesis was "A needs-based approach to health care". He turned down an offer to study for a D.Phil. in politics, instead joining the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. He then interned in the office of Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana, where McCrery assigned him to work on healthcare policy; Jindal spent two weeks studying Medicare to compile an extensive report on possible solutions to Medicare's financial problems, which he presented to McCrery.

As a young convert to Christianity, Jindal wrote several articles about his spiritual journey that were published in the New Oxford Review.

Personal life

Jindal was raised in a Hindu household. He converted to Christianity while in Baton Rouge Magnet High School. During his first year at Brown University, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. His family attends weekly Mass at Saint Aloysius Parish in Baton Rouge.
Bobby and Supriya Jolly Jindal meet with then-President George W. Bush.

Jindal's father, Amar Jindal, received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Guru Nanak Dev University. Jindal's mother, Raj (Pal) Jindal, is an information technology director for the Louisiana Workforce Commission (formerly the Louisiana Department of Labor) and served as Assistant Secretary to former State Labor Secretary Garey Forster during the administration of Gov. Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr. Prior to immigrating to the United States, both his parents were lecturers at an Indian engineering college. According to Jindal, his mother was already four months pregnant with him when they arrived from India. Jindal has a younger brother, Nikesh, who is a registered Republican and supported his brother's campaign for governor. Nikesh went to Dartmouth College, where he graduated with honors, and then Yale Law School. Nikesh is now a lawyer in Washington, D.C.

Jindal's nickname dates to his childhood identification with an ABC sitcom character. He has said, "Every day after school, I'd come home and I'd watch The Brady Bunch. And I identified with Bobby, you know? He was about my age, and 'Bobby' stuck." He has been known by his nickname ever since, though his legal name remains Piyush Jindal.

In 1997, Jindal married Supriya Jolly who was born in New Delhi, India and moved to Baton Rouge with her parents when she was four years old. They attended the same high school, but Supriya's family moved from Baton Rouge to New Orleans after her freshman year and they did not begin dating until later, when Jindal invited her to a Mardi Gras party after another friend had canceled. Supriya Jindal earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and an M.B.A. degree from Tulane University. She is working on a PhD in marketing at Louisiana State University. She created The Supriya Jindal Foundation for Louisiana's Children, a non-profit organization aimed at improving math and science education in grade schools. They have three children: Selia Elizabeth, Shaan Robert, and Slade Ryan. Shaan was born with a congenital heart defect and had surgery as an infant. The Jindals have been outspoken advocates for children with congenital defects, particularly those without insurance. In 2006, Jindal and his wife delivered their third child at home. Barely able to call 911 before the delivery, Jindal received medical coaching by phone to deliver their eight-pound, 2.5-ounce boy.

Writings

A list of Jindal's published writings up to 2001 can be found in the hearing report for his 2001 U.S. Senate confirmation. They include newspaper columns, law review articles, and first authorships in several scientific and policy articles that have appeared in the prominent Journal of the American Medical Association, Journal of the Louisiana State Medical Association, and Hospital Outlook.

Jindal's pre-2001 writings include several articles in the New Oxford Review, one of which later made news during his 2003 gubernatorial race. In that 1994 article titled "Physical Dimensions of Spiritual Warfare", Jindal described the events leading up to an apparent exorcism of a friend and how he felt unable to help her at the time. However, Jindal questioned whether what he saw was actually an example of "spiritual warfare".

In November 2010, Jindal published the book Leadership and Crisis, a semi-autobiography significantly influenced by his experiences with the most recent Gulf Oil Spill.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Jindal