MUMBAI: From basketball to liberal arts, a dozen students from civic schools this year have taken a step closer to realising their dreams. With financial help, and a little nudge and support from NGOs that BMC partnered with, these students have bagged admissions to prestigious universities for the ongoing academic year.
From civic schools supported by Aakanksha Foundation, one student has made it to IITKharagpur, another to Wheaton College in Massachusetts and four have entered Ashoka University. Six others have secured financial aid from the NGO Hi5 Foundation to study and train at Karjat-based Corvuss American Academy, a first-of-its-kind boarding school for student athletes.
“I had a teacher who studied in IIT-Bombay and a few years ago, he took me to see the campus. He told me about the wonderful jobs one gets after graduating from IIT,” said Suraj Gupta, who has joined IIT-Kharagpur, about his inspiration.
Civic students get exposure and help in exploring career options
Suraj said, “With that inspiration and passion for mathematics, I set my eyes on IIT. While my JEE (Main) rank wasn’t impressive, I worked really hard to improve my score in the JEE (Advanced) exam.” Suraj, a former student of Abhyudaya Nagar Mumbai Public School, Parel, is pursuing his bachelor’s degree in metallurgy at the Kharagpur institution.
The foundation’s Alumni Support and Engagement team helps students explore career opportunities and handholds them through the application process. “It was the vast exposure that our school and teachers provided us that introduced me to the outside world and the opportunities I have,” said Aliya Mulla, who attends online classes at Wheaton College from home as Covid-19 has put her campus plans on hold. Aliya, daughter of a BEST driver, lives in the city with her parents and two siblings. Sabiha Khan, Mariya Chowdhary, Ganesh Naidu and Mitali Sakaria have bagged admission for undergraduate courses at Ashoka University.
Sneha Yadav, Anjali Pandey, Kajal Kotekar, Laxmi Yadav, Suraj Gupta (another student) and Prabhat Mishra will be at Corvuss American Academy. These students were selected through the ‘Hopes Thru Hoops’ programme run by NGO Hi5 Foundation. “At Corvuss, equal importance is given to academics and sports,” said Anjali, who has been selected for Under-14 girls junior NBA Mumbai team. She wants to be a professional basketball player. Students graduating with an American high school diploma could get to study abroad.
The BMC runs a ‘Career Aware’ programme with Antarang Foundation to help students of classes IX and X become more self-aware about their interests, aptitudes and realities. They can take psychometric tests and have one-on-one sessions with experts for parents, many of whom are in low-paying jobs and have no idea of how to break the cycle.