GURUJI EDUCATION FOUNDATION
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : p******k@g***l.c*m
Mission Statement
Education for all
About This Cause
Our Motivation: While India has made tremendous progress towards ensuring Right to Education, there are significant challenges that still need to be overcome. These include: • School attendance & dropouts • Teacher shortage & quality • Language barrier • Parental involvement & awareness • Infrastructure & facilities • Lack of teaching resources • Quality of curriculum • Gender disparities The situation is manifold more difficult for students who come from families that are economically and socially deprived or affected by challenges such as cancer, corona, divyang children, loss of employment, loss of a parent, etc. Our work: Guruji Education Foundation (GEF) aspires to make a small difference to the lives of such students through its two flagship programs: 1. Holistic Higher Education (HHE): Under this program we identify 100 new high-potential students annually and catalyze their all-round development by providing a bedrock of necessary resources. The resources include interest-free loans (to be paid after they start earning), personal mentoring, and career counselling. We started our work in Mumbai in 2004 and now admit students from every corner of the state. Since 2021, we have started admitting students from all over India. 2. Adolescent Development Program (ADP): This program focuses on developing adolescents across five dimensions viz. physical literacy, psychological strengths, intellectual sharpness, entrepreneurial zeal, and life skills. While ADP started as a weekly (every-Sunday) in-person engagement with students from five selected schools, it has now evolved into a hybrid program with a mix of online and in-person engagement. Currently we are developing around 2600 students from 21 schools – 19 from Maharashtra and one each from MP and Tamil Nadu. While we are working on all the five dimensions, we have given priority to developing thinking and teaming skills and spoken English. We also support the education of students whose families are in distress due to reasons such as cancer, Covid-19, loss of a parent, farmers’ suicide, and acid attack. While we follow the standard admission process and principles for these students, we offer them some leeway while evaluating their academic performance. We emphasize providing appropriate educational opportunities that are in line with the student's capabilities and would help rehabilitate their families. The devastation faced by them often make such students and their families very sensitive. Our Principles: 1. Holistic development: Develop students in multiple dimensions by encouraging students’ participation in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities 2. Total inclusivity: Admit students with no consideration for caste, creed, religion, region, etc. 3. Customized career planning: Counsel students for appropriate career paths through involvement of professional counsellors in assessing their aptitude 4. Cycle of giving: Inculcate social commitment in our students so that they can ably and passionately carry forward the mission of the foundation 5. Quality over quantity: Quality of service provided to the students has far greater value than the number of students we support 6. Collaboration: Work together with all stakeholders including parents and families, like-minded individuals and institutions etc. to progress towards our mission Our Process: 1. Selection of deserving students: We first shortlist students based on an algorithm that considers both - their socioeconomic status and their potential. Students shortlisted through the algorithm, progress to the next step of home visit. A volunteer (generally the potential mentor of the student) visits the student’s house to verify the information provided by the student and to develop a rapport with the student and his/her family. The volunteer fills in a home visit form, based on which the Foundation takes the final decision on selecting the student. 2. Key features of the development approach: Once the selected students are onboarded, we place great emphasis on developing their thinking abilities by making them think. All students fill in Monthly Thinking Exercise documents to record their academic, real-life project, and English language self-assessments or vacation activities. They also think about progress and plan their co- and extra-curricular activities. They are made to think of their financial requirements for the subsequent three months, any personal difficulties they may be facing, their eating, sleeping and exercising habits etc. We have developed a “reading ladder “of books that the students are required to read. The students share their progress on the ladder (how many books they have read versus how many they should have read at their levels). We also ask them about new friends acquired by them and what they learned from them. The students are required to write an essay of 8-10 lines on a topic of their interest, and an action plan for the next month. The mentors have in-person or telephonic meetings with their mentees based on the Monthly Thinking Exercise. We enrol mentors by understanding their personalities through a questionnaire or interviews, which are aimed at understanding their response in different situations. In general, we believe that mentoring is treating our mentee students as our own children or younger siblings. We conduct annual get-togethers at our centres. Earlier they used to happen in Mumbai, but with the growing number, we have decided to decentralize and conduct them at each centre. 3. Continued Support: After graduation, we help our students find suitable jobs, and support them through their major life and career decisions. Some Numbers: So far, we have supported 251 students, more than 66% of these are from villages and more than 60% are girls. 106 out of the 251 have graduated and are working in marquee companies such as Accenture, Cap Gemini, Dassault, Infosys, Larsen & Tubro (L&T), Microsoft, Ola, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), etc. Many of them support the foundation by mentoring new students, managing centres, organizing annual days, publishing newsletters, etc. Six of them have also become donors to the organization. We have more than 211 supporters including mentors. Our Learning Thus Far and The Road Ahead: Based on our experience since inception, we perceive the following to be key challenges that need collective efforts, creative solutions and support from like-minded individuals like yourselves as we move ahead: • Helping students maintain the same performance levels in college as in high school. Due to myriad reasons, including poor academic foundation, their performance slumps significantly after entering college • Improving English language skills • Maintaining high engagement levels: With no formal channels with students we need to find ways to ensure stronger emotional connect • Identifying the neediest students. While we do get bright students who have inadequate financial and social capital, we do not always reach the extreme socio-economic corners • Meeting the scaled growth plan Our medium-term plans include: • Entrepreneurial mindset development Lab • Critical thinking Lab • Science Lab • Parenting Lab • Development of rural divyang children • Prisoners’ children • Mentoring privileged students • Developing school infrastructure - Solar power systems, Toilets, buses for transportation, civil work, etc Our long-term plans include: • using technology in core and support processes for effective functioning of the foundation • participating at advisory levels in institutes to influence their functioning GEF is registered at the TechSoup family’s NASSCOM Foundation to explore leveraging possible technologies. How can you support We require your support in identifying the neediest students, mentoring them on a one-on-one basis for holistic development or mentoring a group of students for developing specific skills such as English speaking, mobilizing funds and other assets such as laptops, and networking to enrol more individuals and institutions for the above activities. GEF is a registered trust under Bombay Public Trust Act. It has regulatory approvals under Section – 80 G and Section 12-A of the Income Tax Act, and certificates for CSR1 and FCRA. Reach Out to Us: For more information, please write to info@gurujifounation.in WhatsApp or call: Dr Pradeep Waychal on +91 9820431482 (Indian Standard Time), or Mr Prashant Phatak on +1 908 790 1848 (US Eastern Standard Time) Our Core Team Our core team has a rich mix of experience in corporate houses, start-ups, governmental, and non-governmental organizations at various levels. The current members of the Team are listed below: 1. Arvind Dhupkar, Chairman, Cybermarine 2. Ashwini Kadam, Software Engineer, Accenture (GEF alumni) 3. Avinash Surve, Ex-Secretary, ED Vidarbha Irrigation, Maharashtra Irrigation 4. Baba Nikam. Retired HR Manager, IBP Oil 5. Chandrakant Deokar, Retired Superintendent Engineer, Maharashtra Irrigation 6. Chhaya Rohane, Engineer, Apurva Consultancy Services 7. Mohan Varadpande, Retired Executive Engineer, Maharashtra Irrigation 8. Palani Thyagarajan, Trustee, Vinimay (an NGO) 9. Pradeep Waychal, Independent Educator and Researcher 10. Prashant Phatak, IT Manager, White & Case 11. Sabera Thyagarajan, Entrepreneur and volunteer at various NGOs 12. T Balasubramaniam, Chartered Accountant serving many NGOs 13. Vinod Sadavarte, Independent Consultant