A day with our Mentor

“A truly great mentor is not about how much you keep for yourself but how much you pour into others.” – One such is our mentor Mr. Sanjay Purohit. Vidhya Vidhai is a part of EduMentum incubation which supports early-stage entrepreneurs to develop them and build the organization. Being part of EduMentum, one of our biggest gifts has been the mentorship provided in all domains. Our journey was barely getting started and we have been lucky enough to be paired with a mentor who I undoubtedly look up to and admire for his incredible knowledge and character.

The fascinating thing about Sir is the way he manages time in spite of his engagement with so many organizations and curating different societal platforms. Sir has been mentoring Vidhya Vidhai since its conception and he visited us and the partnered schools in Chennai in the month of June 2019. Anupama Purohit Ma’am also a mentor at EduMentum accompanied Sir for the Chennai visit. Like a student who is excited to show his work to the teacher, we were just as excited about Sir and Ma’am’s visit to our schools. 

Our journey started at 7:30 am in the morning, The day began with a short background of Tondiarpet cluster and the community. 

The Welcome

Karunya, The Cluster Transformation Lead of Tondiarpet Cluster welcomed  Sir and Ma’am and had the transformation journey presented along with reports and documents of the interventions. Post this, the school visits began with a grand welcome march by one of the Cluster school children. 

Conversation with Leaders

It was an inspirational conversation by the owners of the school on their journey of leadership and vision for the school. Sir and Ma’ams curiosity to understand the ideology of the leader intrigued the Correspondents to share in detail about their plans for the school and its development.  

Conversation with Teachers

The moment we entered the room, teachers expressed fear and anxiety to speak but it did not last long as Sir made them feel welcomed and shared his interest to know the school and understand Vidhya Vidhai’s work from a teacher’s perspective. It was interesting to see the teacher’s growth and their ideas to improve the school. This conversation reflected the teachers’ ownership and will towards school development.

Classroom Visits

The teachers proudly presented the classroom walls and the teaching-learning materials created to ensure students are given a conducive learning environment that enhances a child’s learning and development. There was clear evidence of how interventions like Kartka Kasadara and T-MAT had impacted teachers and their teaching.  

Coming Together

The day ended with formal feedback from our mentors, That said, Ownership among stakeholders and language about the programme is evident. As the schools have just completed 1 year of the programme, the beginning of the transformation journey is visible which reflects that the work is on the right path but the team needs to be conscious on staying on this path to be better and leverage on the impact that has already been witnessed.

The coming together of all the efforts and time was felt as the school expressed their value for the program and the love towards the team. The presence of our mentors made our motivation and confidence grow much higher to be better and to use our full potential to enable schools to deliver Quality Education. The formal and informal communications with Sir and Ma’am in this journey of 2 days gave us an assurance that “we have a strong platform to support us and move up the ladder”. 

The most exciting part of this visit included interactions with other EduMentees and their schools the previous day. This helped us understand and share each other\’s successes, challenges, and needs. Bhumi, Thrive, Involve and Vidhya Vidhai came together to celebrate the work we do and share a fun-filled time with our mentors and the team. The evening conversation included talks over leveraging societal platforms and understanding the landscape of education.