MAYA WINS WILLIAM DRENTTEL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN

Every year, Teach For All in collaboration with The Winterhouse Institute raise awareness and value of design, while helping Teach For All partners magnify their mission through the inaugural William Drenttel Award for Excellence in Design. The award recognizes projects from Teach For All partners that utilize design to create impact and elevate the field of design through excellent work.

We are excited to announce that this year, Teach For India was recognized for the design of the original musical MAYA and its robust promotional campaign. Maya was the perfect example of an art-integrated education. We witnessed a dramatic change in the students from beginning of the journey till date. A year ago they could barely string a sentence in English, did not know how to sing or dance or act, and didn’t even know the meaning of the words wisdom, courage and compassion (the three values that are the central theme of the Musical). By showtime, their English was at par if not more that their grade level, they were confident, self-aware, embedded strong values and demonstrated them in their everyday behavior, and have become our strongest student leaders at Teach For India, who will now carry forward their learnings from Maya to teach other classrooms in Maya 2.0.

Maya was also the best example of collaboration and collective action at Teach For India. Every element of its design from costumes to sets to the brand and merchandise came together through combined efforts from the Maya children and a host of generous supporters of the project. With the help of a well-known designer, the children designed and created the costumes and hand painted the masks themselves, after reading and understanding the characters in the Musical.

Teach For India and the other winners will receive a featured announcement in Design Observer, an announcement at the 2015 Winterhouse Symposium for Design, Education, and Social Change, and design consulting services through the Winterhouse Institute network. In addition, winners’ projects will be shared across the Teach For All network as examples of innovative approaches solving challenges all partners face.

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TEACH FOR INDIA CELEBRATES 3 BIG WINS AT WORLD EDUCATION CONGRESS, 2015.

This years World Education Congress commemorated Teach For India and CEO, Shaheen Mistri, for their immense contribution in reshaping India’s education landscape, at the National Awards for Excellence in CSR and Sustainability. Three accolades were awarded to Teach For India and Shaheen, respectively, for the following categories – Best NGO, Outstanding Leadership, and CSR Leadership.

“This is a step forward for Teach For India and truly reinstates the belief in our audacious vision. I’d like to share this honor with all Teach For India’s supporters who have risen to the challenge, been leaders in their own accord and helped us amplify our impact in India’s education sector.” says Shaheen Mistri.

The World Education Congress, held at the Taj Lands End, Mumbai on the 24^th of July 2015, is an annual forum, organized by World CSR Day. Global CSR leaders advocate the value of sustainability and CSR for the future development of societies and nations, acknowledge and share best practices and celebrate global corporate and NGO efforts.

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Student Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship Meet

It is ironic that while India houses possible the highest number of social entrepreneurs in the world, social innovation & entrepreneurship itself forms a deplorable mention in the course curriculum in most academic institutions in our country. Curriculum aside, very few colleges in India have societies dedicated to promoting social entrepreneurship and development through enterprise on campus and creating a class of socially responsible citizens. National Social Entrepreneurship Forum (NSEF) aims to open centers of excellence throughout the nation to bridge this talent inequity in the sector by inspiring, training and providing mentorship to students to incline them towards the responsible business and developmental sector.

NSEF is organizing a 2 day workshop on Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Bangalore on the 9th and 10th of July. Briefing about the event Yashveer Singh, Founder & Director, National Social Entrepreneurship Forum added, the workshop would bring together inspiring Social Innovators and Entrepreneurs who will share their expertise and also mentor more than 100 student leaders of many Universities across India to help them become Social Change Agents. The two day event will be abuzz with interactive sessions, lectures, capacity building sessions and more. Sessions will be handled by  around 14 speakers, few being Ramji Raghvan, Founder & Chairman, Agastya International Foundation, Mr. Naveen Jha, CEO, Deshpande Foundation, Mr. Elango Ramaswamy, Village President Kuthambakkam, Bala Girisaballa, Director, Yahoo Entrepreneur Network, Mathew Jacob, Founder Idiom Design, Sean Blagsvelt, Founder, BabaJobs , Shanti Raghavan, Ashoka Fellow and Founder, Enable India and will span a wide spectrum of topics that will leave these young guns with inspiration, wisdom and will equip with techniques of becoming a social entrepreneur.

About National Social Entrepreneurship Forum (NSEF)

National Social Entrepreneurship Forum (NSEF) is India’s premier youth platform for social innovations with pan-India chapters facilitating the growth of leaders of change. It was founded in 2009 with an aim to inspire the next generation of leaders, bridge the talent inequity in the social sector and foster ecosystems where social change catalysts are created and supported. Since its inception, NSEF has undertaken social entrepreneurial activities in 30 academic institutes, helped some of disruptive social enterprises to address their biggest challenges by connecting them to talent equipped with the right skills and mindsets to jumpstart their growth and has created a multiplier effect by supporting a number of young social entrepreneurs, impacting millions of lives in India.

Website : http://www.nsef-india.org

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Pledging your support to Teach For India

Pledge your support to Teach For India.  Donate now on TFI’s page on GiveIndia.  http://www.giveindia.org/give/pledgepage/TeachForIndia

Ajita Raghavendra, a TFI Fellow has now raised more than Rs. 24000 through GiveIndia.

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NSEF Authors of Change

Your chance to intern in some of the best social enterprises is here — The application for the much coveted NSEF Authors of Change is now open

The National Social Entrepreneurship Forum (NSEF) will select 50 Authors of Change for their summer program and will place them in premier social entrepreneurial organizations such as Naandi Foundation, Industree Crafts, Saath, Miracle Couriers, Ennovent, Samhita Social Ventures and thirty others all across India. These young leaders will be working on highly entrepreneurial and challenging roles which vary from Strategy, Innovation, Marketing, Social Media, supply Chain Management, HR, Outreach, Business Development, B plan Development, Website Design, Communications, Finance, Product Development etc.
NSEF Authors of change is a one of its kind, a high social impact two month internship program where students engage their summer solving some of the most pressing problems of social organizations. These students are selected on the basis of their demonstrated passion and commitment towards social change, leadership experience and their aspiration to become change agents for their society. The program will also create a network of young leaders who will be provided with access to mentors and experts from the sector. During the internship these authors learn from each other through regular interactions, sharing knowledge through blogs and other platforms. The internship will culminate with a BootCamp where social entrepreneurs, thought leaders and experts in the social sector will have an intensive workshop on social entrepreneurship.

Srikumar Murthy, Co-Founder and Director of National Social Entrepreneurship Forum says, “Last year we received close to 500 applications for 25 odd positions in about fifteen partner social enterprises. Students from some of the best institutes in India like IIM’s, IIT’s, NIT’s St. Stephens, St Xavier’s were a part of this program. These students demonstrated a significant impact in their work which drew a lot of appreciation from our partner organizations. There were plenty of learning opportunities for these students to not only work at the grassroots but also get involved in some sort of strategic decision making processes of these organizations. Our placement process is respected a lot in these organizations and we try our best to make it a win-win situation for both the organizations and the students.”

National Social Entrepreneurship Forum (NSEF) is a non-for-profit organization with a mission of promoting Social entrepreneurship amongst youth of India. To achieve this goal, NSEF has students chapters at prestigious institutions like Tata Institute of Social Sciences, IIM’s, IIT’s, BITS etc. and has emerged as one of the premier platform for students interested in Social entrepreneurship. NSEF Authors of Change is one of its flagship programs.

“We appeal to all students interested in making a change to apply for this prestigious program. Some of our last year’s Authors of change have gone ahead to start their own social enterprise, some have become innovators and won many coveted awards. Such is the impact of this program”, says Srikumar.

To apply visit http://nsef-india.org/authorsofchange/

 

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Prajwalan- Igniting minds

Volunteers across India are spreading the word about Teach For India on their campus through various events.  A volunteer in Amravati has taken up the responsibility of spreading awareness about Teach For India through his college fest Prajwalan.

Time	Monday, February 28 at 9:00am – March 1 at 6:00pm
Location	Goverment College Of Engineering Amravati Amravati, India
More Info	‘PRAJWALAN’ is National level technical festival organised by Goverment College Of Engineering Amravati WE are having several events both in technical and non technical event are as follows 1) B plan 2)c\c++ Programming 3)code Frenzy 4)CAD\CAM 5)Circuit Designing 6)Comp u-H(PC assembling) 7)Green Building 8)Junk ART 9)Junk yard 10)LAN Gaming 11)Model Exhibition 12) Paper Presentation 13)Robotics 14)Town Planning and various workshop as well as other on spot events awaiting for you The attraction of this year is that we are launching a new inter college competition Top 5 colleges whose participation and winning will be highest are eligible to participate in ‘PRAJWALAN CUP’ for more details please check http://www.gcoea.ac.in/prajwalan2011/index.htm

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28 hours left: Final Deadline….!!!

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My experience as a TFI Campus Ambassador- Alex Moroz

Alex Moroz- Teach For India Campus Ambassador at University of Illinois

As the only campus ambassador at a university of 40,000 students, I realized that reaching out to every student was going to be difficult.  I knew that I was going to need some help to spread publicity, so I created an official student organization called Students For Teach For India.  Besides the 300 members that joined the group, I also had 14 publicity managers who talked to their professors, other organizations, and friends about Teach For India.  Thanks to one of my publicity managers, I was able to give a presentation in one of her lecture classes.  Moreover, our organization hosted an international award-winning professor to talk about his experiences with aiding the poor in India.  Today, our organization is still expanding, and we post updates, links, and discussions on Facebook.

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‘Transformative edu important’

Wendy Kopp

Exactly a year after the Teach For India (TFI) campaign took off in the city, the entire team got the opportunity to interact with the woman who first introduced this concept in the US under the banner Teach For America (TFA), way back in 1989. Wendy Kopp,
CEO and founder of TFA, addressed the Fellows of the TFI campaign on Friday evening.
“It all started with an idea in my head when I was a senior in college. I was worried about the state of education in our country. In about four months of sticking fliers at various places, we got applications from 2,500 students from all over. After months of interviewing, we finally saw the first batch of 500 TFA Fellows,’’ said Kopp, who is in the city for a week.
Kopp spoke about her experiences in the past 18 years, since the first time this concept was implemented in US and the changes she sees today. “The impact on the lives of the children and the enthusiasm and leadership potential in thousands of Fellows is inspiring. All this just proves that education inequity is a solvable problem, if initiative is taken at the right time,’’ she said. ‘‘Providing transformative education is truly the challenge,’’ she said.
The current team of TFI Fellows operates at 33 schools in Mumbai and Pune and is attempting to better the education pattern for over 3,000 students. “To see other teachers trying to adopt our method of teaching is worth all our efforts,’’ said Edward Fanthone, a graduate from Delhi University.
TFI is planning to spread its campaign to Delhi this year. Those interested in applying for the 2011 Fellowship, log on to www.teachforindia.org.

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Jump into English Power !

Getting kids to the front of the class has been a challenge in my class. They are very shy and by the time they get up and come to the front of the class, we have already spent some time. So, how do I get children eager to come there and face the class to read something or talk about something, in English?

A spur-of-the-moment idea has turned out to be a big hit in my class. I drew a smiley with a chalk, called it the Magic Smiley. When I call the kid to the front of the class, he/she has to stand away from the smiley and jump into it and suddenly he/she gets “English Power” We built so much hype and drama around this (like how you get sudden power when you acquire that ‘magic potion’ in videogames) that the kids love to do it now.

But, the funny thing is, today, when I came back to class after the lunch break, some kids had drawn many Magic Smileys on the floor and were jumping into it So, Bhaiya had to tell them that only Bhaiya’s Magic Smiley will work because of a special chalk

What I learnt is: Build hype and drama around every little thing you give them or ask them to do. Even if you are handing out test question papers, homework papers, give it first to kids who are following classrules. Making this a big deal will make kids want it badly that they will follow class rules.

About srini091

I am a Fellow of the Teach For India movement and am a Class Teacher in a Municipal School in Mumbai

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