Before joining the MDP, Rishi Khalsa served in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica as a development professional in the field of English education. During his service, he worked extensively with the Ministry of Public Education and other organizations at the grassroots and national level. His work ranged from facilitating workshops of up to 120 people at a time to coordinating the donation of books to schools. Rishi Khalsa graduated from CSU East Bay with degrees in International Studies, Economics, and Spanish. He studied abroad at the Universidad de Granada in Spain and graduated summa cum laude. Rishi Khalsa is a Bay Area native but also grew up in Northern India where he attended boarding school for nearly seven years.