ORLANDO, Fla. — They touted her as smart and educated.

They trumpeted her as youthful and diverse.

Perhaps most of all, they expressed excitement over the way in which she could inspire their communities.

Indian Americans in Orlando on Wednesday celebrated the inauguration of Vice President Kamala Harris for those reasons and more.

“It’s a historic day. It’s a day of hope, a day to promote diversity,” India native Yog Melwani, chair of the City of Orlando’s Committee on Multicultural Affairs, told Spectrum News 13. “I think she will appeal to the younger generation to get them more involved and integrated into our politics.”

Harris, the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father, on Wednesday took the oath that made her the country’s first woman, African American, and Asian American vice president.

Her swearing-in inspired Indian Americans and others to reflect on what is possible — and what now is reality.

“I love it,” said Mital Hall, an Indian American and vice president at ecoPreserve, a sustainability company based partly in Orlando. “What I love even more is that she’s a woman. The Indian piece or that diversity aspect, it’s really wonderful, and I love that connection with her being Indian, but I think it’s even stronger that she’s a woman.

Mital Hall is an executive at ecoPreserve, which is partly based in Orlando. (Courtesy of Mital Hall)

“It just makes me so proud that she’s in that position, and she provides a lot of people hope.”

The same sentiment goes for Dr. Seela Ramesh, a Central Florida gastroenterologist who was born in India.

“Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, I think it should be appreciated — breaking all the glass ceilings as she has,” Ramesh said.

“As an Indian American,” he added, “I appreciate the merit, whether you like the policy or not. Whether you’re Indian or American or Jamaican... it just shows that if you work hard, you can achieve anything you want.”

Raj Shah said he can relate to Harris because of his journey. Like Harris’s mother, who came to the U.S. from India to pursue a graduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley, Shah came to the U.S. from India to get a master’s degree in engineering at the University of Central Florida.

Today, he’s a father of two who says he works as a marketing VP at a Fortune 500 company.

Shah said the rise of Harris “gives me a lot of hope for the possibilities for my children and others.”

“It’s wonderful to see a fellow Indian American to be occupying such an esteemed position and certainly at this time, when the division in the country is tremendous,” Shah said. “This is a long-awaited step, and hopefully the first of many to come, not just for the Indian American community but all minority communities in the country.”

Orlando resident Usha Tewari, a first-generation Indian American, pointed out that Indian Americans also stand among appointees and nominees in the Biden administration. Those include Neera Tanden as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

CNN declared this week that Biden offers the most racially diverse Cabinet in U.S. history.

“He’s promoting diversity at all levels, and he does have a strong South Asian contingency support system within his administration,” Tewari said.

Tewari said she’s a former congressional staffer who started helping on election campaigns more than 30 years ago, at age 11.

“Traditionally in our culture, a lot of people are physicians or engineers, and I did not go that route,” she said. “I have dedicated about 14 years or more of my life to public service.”

She suggested that Harris and the Biden appointees could inspire new career paths for some Indian Americans.

“I think that will create a ripple effect to motivate others to get involved and maybe not seek traditional professions... and maybe we will see more people pushing for community interests and (jobs as) lawmakers.

“I think it also represents hope for the younger generation that individuals will become more involved in their community.”