How might we enable all students to be ready for their future?

Our world is rapidly evolving; with automation, globalisation, and collaboration working together to create a volatile mix. However, our education system has remained frozen. We are creating a scalable, social enterprise that is powered by technology to help change this dynamic.

How might we inspire, empower and engage students to be global citizens?

JUMP! works across the world, enabling students to discover themselves, build community and become active global citizens by being immersed in experiential learning. I worked across South East Asia, Australia, and helped set up our Global Citizenship Centre at Ivanhoe Grammar School, Melbourne.

How can we create schools that are inclusive for students from economically weaker sections?

Under the Right to Education Act, unaided private schools have to reserve at least 25% seats for children from economically and socially disadvantaged communities. While schools have admitted the children, they were not able to bring fundamental changes in attitudes or pedagogies that can help foster inclusion. At Patang, we took our ideas from policy to practice by implementing a holistic academic and social inclusion programme in two private schools in South Delhi.

How do children understand mathematical concepts and how can we teach it simply and intuitively?

At Educational Initiatives, I was able to research pedagogical techniques to try and answer such questions. I developed several tools for 10-12 year old children to understand abstract ideas like prime numbers, factors and multiples, and negative integers.

How might we make learning Maths fun and design a better experience for teachers using the Mindspark product?

For over a semester, I was solely responsible for 31 bratty children and their Maths learning outcomes. I used everything from the chalkboard to cooking to ensure that the children were excited to learn Maths.

I immersed myself in the shoes of a regular teacher. This helped me empathise with them and understand the areas where our product could either relieve pain or provide gain to Maths teachers across the country.

How can you get college students to use their skills to help the non-profit sector?

ngoFuel, our brain-child, was an answer to this question. We were able to minimise the technical divide within the non-profit sector by utilising skills of students, implemented with an investment of mere 20$.

I founded and established the non-profit at the age of 17. We were also featured in the top 30 student start-ups of India, a showcase organised by the National Entrepreneurship Network in January 2011; and a full-page article in HT MINT (English) and Hindustan (Hindi).

Kierkegaard said that life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. I became a Teach For India volunteer in Gangotri Public School, Seelampur, teaching 26 children of grade two, quite by-chance. But soon enough, it became the passion of my life.

I also had the opportunity of becoming a campus ambassador for TFI. During my two year tenure, LSR students received the maximum number of placement offers in India, despite being one of the smallest outgoing batches. I also acted as the Overall Coordinator for Redraw India 2013, a TFI initiative to remove educational inequity in India, and handled all other Campus Ambassadors within Delhi. The event received participation from 1000+ students across 8 colleges in Delhi.

How can we get students to go to school?

I tried to understand why students of primary grade are often absent from schools. For almost a period of four months, I interviewed a number of different stakeholders on how we can improve access and retention rates in Kenya. This report was shared with Aga Khan Foundation and helped them implement their next field project. 

How might we change the world?

Gather the best minds in the world, and get them talking to each other and world leaders, about how to change the world! College-100 is an effort towards the same, and members include student presidents and leaders from Oxford, Harvard, Columbia, Gates Scholars, etc. Some of the leaders and topics that I was able to discuss; Mary Robinson (Climate Justice League), Ambassador Ron Neumann (Middle East), Charles Best (Education), etc.

My five months in Kenya with The Amani Institute gave me the vision and courage to aim higher and to truly accept myself. It provided me with the tools to be a change-maker, to approach problems strategically and to empathise before designing solutions.

I was the youngest in our cohort and I learned a great amount from my peers, a group of 22 talented change-makers from 15 countries, spanning age groups of 21 - 37.

College was all about finding myself and understanding my strengths and passions. Literature provided me with the perfect platform to explore different ideologies and discourses. I was able to study key literary pieces from around the world and learn from them about theory, history, sociology and philosophy.

I had the opportunity to work with some truly phenomenal women and professors, to explore questions around peace and conflict resolution; art and architecture and the effects of a globalised world.

The Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) - Africa Centre of the Commonwealth Secretariat designed the DYLP 2013 as an online interactive youth leadership training programme which aimed to empower young leaders by providing them access to 500 peers and 50 panelists from all over the world. 

I was fortunate to be a delegate at several MUNs, including the Harvard National MUN 2011 in Boston. I also acted as Chairperson for General Assembly at the Rome MUN 2012, guiding a committee of 170 delegates. Model UN provided me with an unparalleled opportunity to experience first-hand, the challenges of international diplomacy, grapple with some of today’s most pressing world issues, and interact and learn from other students, across the globe.