Accepted to Teach For India(TFI) Fellowship Program – 2012

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

       And that has made all the difference  – Robert Frost

          In India, education is a commodity. The haves manage to afford it while the have-nots are left to the mercy of the government-run school which are under resourced. They fail to motivate or impart necessary skills to the students. Blame it on ineffective educational reforms or lack of political will, the lackadaisical way of functioning of the government-run schools produces a generation of passouts who aren’t armed to climb the rungs of higher education and, therefore, lag behind in the race of life. Unsurprisingly, the half-baked skills acquired by the hapless victims of government-run-schools land them in low-paying jobs. The wheel of misfortune keeps spinning with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. It does not take Amartya Sen to predict a catastrophic damage to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

          Teach for India (TFI) has been working relentlessly to bridge the education disparity in the society by providing excellent education to the one who need it the most. TFI is a nationwide movement of outstanding college graduates and young professionals who will commit two-years to teach full-time in under resourced schools.

           It was in Oct 2011(Cycle-2),I applied to TFI Fellowship- 2012 by registering for TFI and wrote two essays on the following:-

                    1. Why do you want to work in India's education sector? Why do you want to join the Fellowship as opposed to working in a different education-focused organization?

                        2. Tell us about a time in the past three years when you were working towards a professional, academic or extra-curricular goal and had to deal with a difficult situation or challenge

           I am thankful to my friends Ashwin and Sirisha who took the pain to review my essays and helped me to improvise it. Guys, if not for your help, the essays wouldn’t been so impressive! No wonder, I got through initial selection process and bypassed telephonic interview.
       The day at Assessment day (Stage-3/Stage-4) was amazing! TFI made life easier by providing exhaustive instructions and suggestions for the events on the Assessment day.Stage-3 consisted of Demo Class, Group Activity and Individual assessment.Stage-4 consisted of Personal Inteview. 

           Hours of planning and loads of preparation for the Stage-3 and Stage-4 helped me. The preparation mostly comprised introspection of my reasons to join TFI movement. Personal Interview mostly revolved on this question “Why TFI?”, “Why now?”

        TFI Fellowship is a step ahead from volunteering at Make a Difference (MAD) . I must say that volunteering for Make A Difference (MAD) discovered my passion to teach & paved the foundation to apply for TFI. The MADness made me realize my potential. Yes! it made a difference in my life. . 

          Fellowship at TFI implies giving up my cozy and lucrative career as a programmer. After 3 years of stint with IBM and more than a year experience at Mphasis – An HP company, I am a little apprehensive,yet enormously excited about my new career choice. I am about to embark on a beautiful journey.I am very Happy that I will be actively involved to abolish education inequality in the society.I am expected to join TFI Fellowship-2012 in May 2012 in Pune.

"When your hobby becomes your profession, the passion becomes your profession",- 3 Idiots