Global Indianstory Global Indian ExclusiveBuilding Uninsomnia: Teen entrepreneur Aaryan Singh wants youngsters to sleep better

Building Uninsomnia: Teen entrepreneur Aaryan Singh wants youngsters to sleep better

Written by: Darshana Ramdev

(July 6, 2022) As his eleventh grade came to an end, Aaryan Singh found his hobbies fall by the wayside and his free time vanish as academic pressures began to mount. “I became very sleep deprived because I was handling school, the foundation I started during the pandemic and other extra-curricular activities. I had dark circles around my eyes,”the teen entrepreneur told Global Indian. The 17-year-old is the founder of Uninsomnia, an app to help teens deal with sleep deprivation by analysing their schedules, connecting with Fitbits, smart watches and health apps on their phones.

When Aaryan talked to his friends about his sleep problem, he found them all in similar situations. “All of us were pulling all-nighters to cram for exams, we were exhausted,” he says. When he did some research, he was “blown away by what he found.” In the United States, some 69 percent of teenagers face sleep-related problems and disorders, insomnia being the most common. The information on India was sadly lacking and Aaryan did research of his own, finding that fifty percent of high school students don’t get proper sleep.

That’s how, in 2021, Aaryan began working on Uninsomnia. Users get custom sleep tips because the app will analyse their google calendars, connect with Fitbits and smart watches and other health apps. “It tells you when to drink coffee, when to sleep and what exercises you can do to relax and sleep better. It can even suggest melatonin but only if prescribed by a doctor.”

Aaryan Singh | Uninsomnia | Global Indian

Aaryan, during his internship at Coca Cola

Targeting schools

Born and raised in Bhopal, Aaryan Singh describes himself as someone who has always been “very curious, always looking for information, in love with technology.” Growing up, he would ask his parents for toy cars and helicopters, not to play with but to be able to take them apart and put them back together again.

In 2020, Aaryan says, “the main journey began.” When the pandemic hit India, Aaryan was volunteering with a local organisation to help underprivileged and local children. “I was helping the kids with their academics, especially computer science.” One day, he noticed some of the children making beautiful artwork.

“They knew a lot about CS, they were discussing algorithms and coding languages. They were curious to learn skills but didn’t have the opportunities,” he says. So, he set up the Buy To Cure Foundation and ran the organisation for about a year starting October 2020. “We would take drawings from the kids and print them on mugs and other merchandise,” says Aaryan. “Buy To Cure sold these through its e-commerce platform and 90 percent of the funds went back to the orphanages.”

Volunteering with underprivileged kids

Building the foundation

Setting up the foundation involved building a network of over 100 organisations including NGOs, orphanages and schools. Aaryan also created a global team of volunteers and raised over ₹3 lakh in under a year.

During the second lockdown, the organisation was unable to deliver its merchandise. “We told a local government official about the situation and the team was given special powers to go outside the house and move around,” he recalls.

Aaryan, who wants to major in CS and entrepreneurship, also conducts skill enhancing workshops in entrepreneurship and coding.

This April, Aaryan began the LaunchX Entrepreneurship Programme. He will work with entrepreneurial students from around the world to launch a startup and learn from professors from Harvard, MIT (Sloan School) and The Wharton School. He has also been selected into the Dex School of Leadership and Entrepreneurship’s Class of ’23, part of The Dexterity Global Group, founded by globally acclaimed social entrepreneur Sharad Vivek Sagar. His daily life includes juggling academics, which are top priority, his volunteer work and building Uninsomnia as a “one-man army.”

Following through on his deep interest in AI and Machine Learning, Aaryan is a Veritas AI Scholar and an Inspirit AI Scholar. He received a full scholarship for the former, which he began in June this year. As part of Veritas AI, Aaryan is working with Venu Regunath (Dartmouth College), Katrina Brown (Harvard University), and Shravan Ravishankar (University of Chicago), to study data science and artificial intelligence. “The focus is on image classification, AI ethics and why they matter, deep learning, NLP and Language Processing and other topics related to AI and Machine Learning,” says Aaryan, who is also a Global Young Leader and Changemaker 2022.

Follow Aaryan Singh on LinkedIn

Name*

Email*

Name*

Email*

0 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Published on 06, Jul 2022

Share with

ALSO READ

Ananya Jain: The tech founder helping GenZ improve their mental health

(April 2, 2023) In October 2021, a Lancet study found a 35 percent increase in mental health disorders in India alone. That means one in every seven Indians, amounting to a whopping total of 19.73 crore people. The gig economy and its hustle culture, the advent of AI, the growing pressure on teenagers to get into top-notch foreign universities, and the glamorisation of toxic work environments have had telling effects on mental health. Social media, with its curated, filtered glimpses of people's lives has only contributed to overall stress, leading to feelings of inadequacy and loneliness. Unless, of course, you find Ananya Jain on LinkedIn. The intrepid tech founder works with GenZ's mental health, creating a safe and empathetic space for them to connect and cope. "I help strangers on the internet," she writes, in her LinkedIn bio. That's exactly what she does - she helps people. Not in the way that a mental health professional would - while the stigma around seeking help is reducing, empathetic friends are hard to find. That's the gap Ananya fills with FullCircle. Younger generations want to open up and talk about mental health, but the people who understand are rare. "It started selfishly,"

"It started selfishly," Ananya says, during an interview for Global Indian. "I was trying to figure out what was wrong with me." At 23, Ananya's aura of wisdom is a hard-won attribute. Her early life was filled with challenges and she overcame them, mostly on her own. In the end, she knew one thing: she didn't want anybody, not even strangers, to suffer in silence and solitude. It meant sacrificing, at least for the moment, the financial security that every immigrant seeks, in order to be a tech founder and start up an organisation for mental health in a foreign country.

Early turning points

Ananya grew up in Chandigarh, "always looking for ways to get out of the house because things weren't great at home." Her sanctuary was the chemistry lab at her high school - she didn't have any particular interest in science but it was the only place she had. One day, she noticed cockroaches running around in the laboratory. She decided to run some experiments on them, to distract herself from the boredom, if nothing else. "I made a lot of mistakes but I kept at it. At the end of that year, I was 13 then, I had made a biofertiliser," Ananya recalls. She sent her findings off to the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE competition.

When the President’s office called Ananya’s mother to say the “cockroach experiment” had won, the family thought it was a prank. The office persisted and finally, Ananya was on her way to meet Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, who was the President of India then. That was a turning point in the teenager's life. "He cracked a ton of jokes about my obsession with cockroaches," she laughs. "And I realised that if I was ever going to make something of myself, I had better study science."

Georgia on her mind

A few years later, she ended up filing a hurried application to Georgia Tech, starting 30 minutes before the deadline and hitting the send button with 30 seconds to spare. She was accepted- with a scholarship. She arrived in Atlanta, in her own words, as a "really dumb, broke, naive child." She was a good student, though, and was put straight away into the Grand Challenges programme, which was reserved for the best and brightest. "Everyone around me had already done two years of college," she recalls.

In those early days, life looked great on paper but in truth, Ananya Jain was struggling to cope. She was stressed, had no family in the US, and worked five jobs throughout her time in college to pay her way through. "I would sit in a Math lecture, pulling my hair out because I was so stressed." After class, she would rush to work until past midnight. She was also travelling abroad for research.

[caption id="attachment_29043" align="aligncenter" width="418"] Tech founders Ananya and Ankit Kukadia, of FullCircle. Photo: LinkedIn[/caption]

The breaking point

By the second year of engineering college, Ananya Jain had lost all her hair. "I was completely bald," she says, "I had started shedding hair in May 2018 and by the end of that month, my hair had fallen out." For a young woman who had always had long hair, this was shocking. She went to several doctors, but nobody could figure out what was wrong - there was nothing to explain such radical hair loss. And Ananya was keeping it all secret from her family back in India. "I would call my mother every couple of weeks and wear a hoodie. One day, she had had enough and made me remove it," she said.

That day, Ananya Jain landed at a therapist's office, where she was presented with a big bill to be paid by the end of the week. "I had a spreadsheet of expenses. If I had to pay the therapist, it meant I couldn't eat that week. So I didn't eat that week. Ironically, I was more stressed going out of therapy than coming into it," she remarks.

This was the breaking point. Ananya Jain was fed up - she took a photo of herself, completely bald, and posted it on the internet. And she posted her phone number, telling people that if they were stressed out, they could call her (yes, it's a risky thing to do). Twenty-four hours later, 1,00,000 people around the world had seen it. "So suddenly, all I was doing was taking calls from people around the world."

All the lonely people

Why were they calling her, though? This is the age of technology, where everything, even peace of mind, can be coded. Meditation apps, therapists, medicines, everything was a click away. So what was happening? The simple answer: Loneliness. What was the point, she thought, of doing engineering and research when it was such a struggle and there were so many people seeking help? "I cut my education short to work on mental health instead." And that's how things came full circle, so to speak.

FullCircle has two aspects - one, says the young tech founder, is "remaking The Oprah Winfrey Show (it's a figure of speech) for GenZ." Ananya interviews celebrities to talk about what they go through and how they cope. The other aspect is to bring curated groups of ten people together to form small but tight-knit communities. "We facilitate them talking to each other," she explains. "For someone like me, who had just lost her hair, instead of going to Reddit and talking to 50 people trying to find out what was wrong with me, I would go on FullCircle and ask for help." When she was struggling, Ananya recalls, she met a lawyer in Boston. He had lost his hair too, during law school. "If I had met him two years earlier, I would have had an answer."

[caption id="attachment_29044" align="aligncenter" width="572"] Photo: LinkedIn[/caption]

Leading by example

Ananya’s own life is meticulously planned out. Managing stress is a lifelong affair and everything matters, from diet, exercise, and rest, to intangible aspects like good friends and family to provide emotional support and also hold one accountable. “Everything I can control, I put on an Excel sheet,” she explains. “I try to reduce the number of decisions I need to make daily, so my diet plan, my clothes, my social interactions – everything is planned out. I have learned to listen to what my body is telling me.”

Not another therapy app

The tech founder doesn't comment on the pros and cons of therapy - of course, it is necessary in some cases and helpful to many. Still, people require more - they need emotional and tangible support. "We are here to offer perspective to people," Ananya explains. The FullCircle journey does not end with creating micro-communities alone. "The goal is to support them every step of the way, to make people realise they're not as alone as they thought." The other aspects include coaching, therapy, and growth. Mental well-being is never about just one thing- as the saying goes, 'it takes a whole village'. And that's what this young entrepreneur has made it her purpose to give, to tell people that no matter what, there's hope out there.

Follow Ananya Jain on LinkedIn

Reading Time: 6 mins

swiitchbeauty: How Rabia Ghoor built one of South Africa’s largest cosmetics brands

(July 28, 2024) She's a millionaire running her own fashion brand, is called the Kylie Jenner of South Africa and has even been cancelled by actor Halle Berry on Jimmy Kimmel Live! All this by the age of 23. Rabia Ghoor began her own 'swiitchbeauty' cosmetics brand when she was 14 years old. Less than a decade later, her community-centric, tech-enabled cosmetics company has grown to become one of South Africa's largest skincare brands. 'for lazy people, by even lazier people, since 2014', she writes, on the swiitchbeauty website - her products reflect this, they're meant for young people with hectic schedules, who are looking for a fuss-free, easy to use line of cosmetics, that fit somewhere between high-end products and pharmacy brands. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rabia Ghoor (@rabiaghoor) The entrepreneurship mindset If entrepreneurship is a mindset, then this intrepid young Global Indian embodies the idea. Growing up in Pretoria, the capital city of South Africa, Rabia's entrepreneurial forays began much before swiitchbeauty - she was finding ways to turn a profit by the time she was 10 years old. "I would go with my father to this bulk buy place and

The entrepreneurship mindset

If entrepreneurship is a mindset, then this intrepid young Global Indian embodies the idea. Growing up in Pretoria, the capital city of South Africa, Rabia's entrepreneurial forays began much before swiitchbeauty - she was finding ways to turn a profit by the time she was 10 years old. "I would go with my father to this bulk buy place and get stickers. Those were very cool at the time, so I would take my table outside and sell the stickers I bought," she said. When her classmates decided "they were too lazy to walk to the dustbin to throw their trash," Rabia bought a bunch of small buckets, which she sold to them. They could fill the buckets with trash and empty them in the bin later, saving them multiple trips up and down.

As she and her friends began experimenting with makeup for the first time, Rabia discovered the joys of YouTube. She sought out beauty influencers who shared makeup tutorials and product reviews to get tips. Rabia realised that most of these influencers lived abroad, and that there weren't many people in South Africa doing it. Also, the influencers had access to a much wider range of products. "American, European or Asian brands that are unavailable here in South Africa were constantly innovating and evolving - especially in the digital space - while South African brands lagged behind, or just straight up didn't exist," she writes. Her friends would pull out expensive little vanity cases and show off the branded make up they had brought abroad, which were simply impossible to find in South Africa.

Unlike most teenagers, who might have thought about the problem and moved on, Rabia wondered why she couldn't be the one to fill that gap. The project took shape from a "4 square meter area" in her bedroom. While selling stickers and buckets in the school playground is one thing, building a company was a whole other ballgame, as Rabia soon learned.

Making the ‘swiitch’

Rabia also took inspiration from her father, an intrepid businessman himself, who had dropped out of high school too, and seen a string of successes and failures as an entrepreneur. He even gave her a seed fund of R6000 and gave her resources for product sourcing, formulation, e-commerce, packaging, manufacturing and design. to create a beauty brand that was easy on the pocket and which made products that were actually suited to daily use. "Things that did what they said they were going to do," is how Rabia puts it.

Rabia had no high school diploma, let alone an MBA. She functioned from instinct, learning as much as she could from the internet - it meant learning from scratch, how are products made, packaged, distributed and sold? How is a brand created? She knew that her company would cater to the gap in the South African market, and provide goods and services that were world class but easy on the pocket at the same time. "I began by asking myself why I liked a particular product, and it usually came down to specific ingredients and manufacturing techniques," she said. "Doing research on these ingredients and techniques was very beneficial."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by swiitchbeauty® (@swiitchbeauty)

Building her brand

In 2015, she made her first sale. "I didn't sleep at all during that first year," she has said, many times over. "I would be up till 3 am packaging orders, then wake up at 6 am to get to school. I was exhausted." Her exhaustion soon began to show and one morning, when she walked downstairs, her mother simply said, "Rabia, you're not going to school today, are you?" Rabia said no. "You're not going back ever, are you," her mum continued. And Rabia said no, again. That's how she quit high school at the age of 15, in 2016, to build a business as her classmates planned outfits for the end-of-year dance. "I just never went back," she laughs, as she recalls. Her parents had seen her running the business for over a year by that time, and had full faith in her. "My parents had seen what I could do with putting only half my attention into it," she says.

The realisation that she was in an unpleasant rut motivated her to get going. Her parents had just let her be to find her own way, which Rabia is grateful for always. She had to return to her bottom line, and why she had started swiitchbeauty in the first place. She listened to motivational podcasts and focussed on structuring her days and growing her business. Fortunately, order was restored quickly and Rabia hired four people to her staff.

What began an idea, with an Instagram page and two products, now has a long range of cosmetics and over 100k followers on Instagram. "I wanted a tech-enabled, affordable-priced and transparent beauty brand," she said. It was to be a homegrown product that her fellow South Africans, irrespective of race and gender, would be proud to use everyday. That's not the brand's only USP, though. swiitchbeauty stands apart from its competitors because Rabia and her team are constantly engaging with and interacting with her customers on Instagram. They get feedback and new ideas straight from her followers, along with educational tutorials made by real people who actually used swiitchbeauty products everyday. That's why she stresses on being a "tech-enabled" brand, dealing with a tech-savvy young market. "Social media has been a gift to our generation of businesses," she says. They tap into local social media influencers as well, which helped amplify the brand's customer base.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by swiitchbeauty® (@swiitchbeauty)

"I am focussing on dominating the market of South African beauty enthusiasts before branching out into the more competitive international field," she says. "I also feel that for now the rest of the world is well-taken care of in terms of make-up." Her 'vocal for local' approach has helped her grow the company tremendously, into one of the country's biggest beauty brands. The "money has been great too," she said in an interview, "but at present turnover is not my core focus. My main purpose is to provide my customers with the best product at the best price and build a sustainable business that will bear fruit in the future."

Follow swiitchbeauty on Instagram.

Reading Time: 6 mins

Tee party: Californian golfer Sahith Theegala clinches 2023 PGA Tour win

(October 17, 2023) "It doesn't feel real. It's probably not going to set in for a while. But man, that was a lot of good golf, and that was some of the most fun I've ever had in my life." 2023 has been a strong year for Californian golfer Sahith Theegala, who captured his first PGA Tour victory in September at the Fortinet Championship. He finished 21-under 267 at Silverado Resort's North Course in in Napa, California, as friends and family cheered him on from the stands. "Just the support I have is mind blowing. I got to bed at night these last few days and i'm like, I can't believe how many people are cheering for me and rooting for me," Sahith told Golf Week USA. "I can definitely hear my dad," he smiled. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sahith Reddy Theegala (@srtheegala) Theegala's father, Muralidharan Theegala, has always been his number one fan, escorting him daily to practice all through his childhood. At the time, only the reasonably-priced municipal golf courses were within reach financially, and Theegala and his parents were determined to do whatever it took. Every evening when it was

ion="14">

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sahith Reddy Theegala (@srtheegala)

Theegala's father, Muralidharan Theegala, has always been his number one fan, escorting him daily to practice all through his childhood. At the time, only the reasonably-priced municipal golf courses were within reach financially, and Theegala and his parents were determined to do whatever it took. Every evening when it was time to leave his beloved golf course for the day, Sahith Theegala would burst into tears, begging begging to stay a little longer. He went on to win the Junior World Championships at the age of six. Now in his senior year at Pepperdine University, the Indian-origin golfer also has four collegiate titles and the Australian Master of the Amateurs under his belt. In 2020, he also won the Haskins Award, the Ben Hogan Award and the Jack Nicklaus Award. He is the fifth player ever to win all the Player of the Year honours. In the American golf scene, dominated by whites, Sahith Theegala stands out, also because Indian-American sports stars don't come around too often.

Inspiring Through Adversity

Theegala is an inspiration for more reasons than being a prodigy. The 24-year-old suffers from scoliosis, which is an abnormal curvature of the spine - one shoulder is visibly higher than the other. He works with his chiropractor and although it doesn't cause him pain, it does account for a "pretty big bend to the right," and an unorthodox swing. Despite this significant setback, the Global Indian went on to become one of the best golfers at Pepperdine University and is loved for his infectious enthusiasm, both on and off the greens.

Born and raised in LA, the son of Karuna and Muralidhar Theegala, Sahith maintains a strong connection to his Indian roots. He lives at home with his parents, for one. In February 2022, when he lost out to Scottie Scheffler at the very last moment, he won more fans than he could have hoped when, according to Golf Digest, he teared up and sobbed on his mother's shoulder, as his dad stood by saying, "It's okay." Sahith's father, Muralidhar, moved to the US from Hyderabad in 1987, to attend graduate school and the family still goes back to India as often as they can.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sahith Reddy Theegala (@srtheegala)

The Indian-American golfer's childhood was spent on municipal golf courses, which charge a modest $30 for a round. The courses aren't well-maintained but it was all his middle-class family could afford - and they were keen to nurture their son's talent. "My dad, even though he never plays golf, he's the one that taught me the game pretty much," he told PGATOUR.com.

"We weren't in the greatest financial situation when I was a kid and we had no experience with sports at all, so my father spearheaded the whole mission to college and professional golf... He put everything that he could into me." Despite their financial constraints, Theegala's parents spent their savings on buying him equipment, paying course fees, for a trainer, travel costs and the litany of expenses that came with his passion.

Determined not to let his scoliosis stand in his way, Theegala would spend days out on dusty golf courses, adapting "his putting stroke by tilting his head to the right so he could see the appropriate line from the gall to hole," according to the New York Times.

In 2015, Theegala graduated with honours from high school in California and had won a number of golf awards by that time. "I'd say I was a pretty good golfer," he said, in the interview with PGATOUR.com. He made it to Pepperdine University in California, which is ranked in the top 10 in men's golf among US Universitites. "At Pepperdine, I went from average to slightly good to what I felt like was ready to be a decent professional golfer."

An emotional @SRTheegala is consoled by mom and dad after coming up 1 shot short of a playoff @WMPhoenixOpen.

The 24-year-old earned countless new fans this week. pic.twitter.com/tq5Q2YsFCy

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 13, 2022

His winning streak in 2019 came to an abrupt pause after a wrist injury. He bounced back, though, making his professional debut in June 2020, somewhat unconventionally. Theegala might not have imagined starting out with the Outlaw Tour but gave a stellar performance nonetheless. The pandemic dealt a heavy blow, when the Pepperdine campus closed and Theegala had to return home. Although that season ended prematurely, Sahith's team ranked first in the country.

His family is always in the stands as he plays, cheering him on. And his fan base is always growing. "I'm an introvert by nature," he told NYT. "You hear about the best performers in the world - singers and dancers - who are really big introverts. But it's different when you get on the stage. When I'm in the act of playing golf, I don't even think about people watching."

Theegala is, however, always aware of being an Indian American, of the fact that it means he is viewed differently by default. He's also playing a sport that has never really welcomed non-white players. "I'm definitely proud of my Indian heritage and I hope I'm inspiring other Indian Americans and people in India to know they can compete in sports," he says. "It's obviously not the main purpose of being out there but it's an ancillary effect of what we're doing and I'm all for it."

Follow Sahith Theegala on Instagram

Adarsh Kumar: Empowering 10,000 students to foster an entrepreneurial mindset

(June 9, 2024) Growing up in a village in the East Champaran district of Bihar, Adarsh Kumar lived a life that was harsh and difficult. But the struggles didn't deter him from pursuing his dream - to become an entrepreneur. Now on his fourth startup Skillzo, the 16-year-old is on a mission to upskill over 10,000 school students in Bihar to become future leaders by providing them exposure, experience, and networking opportunities. "We are empowering a generation of learners with hands-on experience and resources to pursue careers and start businesses," he tells Global Indian. Coming from the grassroots, Adarsh understands the struggles and limitations that children like him face and knows that learning is the solution. In just a year, Skillzo has impacted over 7000 students, and Adarsh is excited to bring practical skills and knowledge to students who need it the most. "It's the need of the hour," says the teen, who has secured a ₹30 lakh scholarship from Jayshree Periwal International School, Jaipur, a leading IB School in India. Rising above the challenges Born in East Champaran, Adarsh was brought up by Monika Upadhyay, who wanted her son to have access to the best education. This led Adarsh

alindian.com/youth//wp-content/uploads/2024/06/adarsh-card-1-819x1024.jpg" alt="Adarsh Kumar | Global Indian" width="497" height="621" />

Rising above the challenges

Born in East Champaran, Adarsh was brought up by Monika Upadhyay, who wanted her son to have access to the best education. This led Adarsh to DAV School which was different from his previous government school. "It opened up a new world to me. Back home, we spoke Bhojpuri, here I found students conversing in Hindi. But my dream was to become fluent in English, and I wanted to start by reading one page at a time. Around the same time, smartphones came in which sparked my curiosity for the digital world." When he was in fourth grade, his mom gifted him a laptop. "Jio revolution was happening, and the internet became cheap and easily accessible. Soon I explored how to make apps and create websites." Around the same time, he stumbled upon the term entrepreneurship for the first time.

Intrigued, he researched more as he was keen to make an impact. "Growing up, I have seen people face troubles around me and I was always keen to work for them. But we are often told that we can change the world only when we reach a certain age." But he understood that age is just a number and co-founded his first startup 2Trillions in 2020 to empower education, animal welfare, and environment conservation. "We were making merchandise with thought-inspiring quotes, selling them, and donating the profits. But soon Covid-19 hit, and due to logistical issues, it had to shut down." Soon he found himself back in his village, and along with the help of a cousin and sister-in-law, he embarked on a social and political campaign Mission Badlao to make a difference in the lives of 1300+ families. "I realised that lack of education was the primary reason many were facing issues in the community. It was an eye-opener for me."

Bridging education gap with Skillzo

Keen to do something, he left his hometown in 2022 for Kota and later moved around Dehradun and travelled to almost 20 cities in the last two years. But soon realised it wasn't just Bihar that was stuck in the traditional methods of education, the situation was equally grim in other parts of the country too. It was a far cry from the education system in Delhi/NCR which is focussed more on practical knowledge and skill development. "I realised students lack in three things at the school level - exposure, experience, and network (of mentors and peer group). This led me to start Skillzo in July 2023 to bridge the education gap," says the teenager, who opted for a top-down approach.

He calls Skillzo a community of over 420 high school students from across the country. These students are exposed to various opportunities and events and also participate in mentorship sessions. "We have done sessions on entrepreneurship as well as study abroad scholarships for Indian students," says Adarsh, who calls these events a perfect networking opportunity for students. Moreover, Skillzo helps with internships along with assisting students who plan to study abroad in terms of SOP and essay writing.

Skillzo has partnered with IIT Guwahati and IIT Bombay to promote entrepreneurial skills at the school level. In the last year, Adarsh has reached out to his network and as well as used LinkedIn extensively to spread the word about Skillzo. In just one year, Skillzo has impacted over 7000 students by providing technical skills and knowledge, which is the need of the hour.

Upskilling 10,000 students

Eager to do something for his hometown and East Champaran district, Adarsh is now on a mission to upskill over 10,000 students in the area with the help of the IGNITE BHARAT program to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset and culture. A 60-minute program which is a mix of lectures, masterclasses, and assignments elaborating on entrepreneurship, design thinking, content reach, and personal branding has been curated by students of IIT Guwahati, IIT Bombay, Harvard University, and Stanford University. "The idea is to launch the IGNITE BHARAT program in small towns of India, starting from East Champaran in Bihar," reveals Adarsh, adding that the instructors are from IIT-Bombay, IIM-Ahmedabad and MICA. The program, which is set to be launched in a couple of weeks, will be introduced to students from Grades 6 to 10 for free. "They can attend the program either at school or at home. Afterward, they have the option to work on a project, which they can submit to us and pitch during a district-level event."

Explaining the desire to come up with the program, Adarsh says he wants to expose the students to concepts like entrepreneurship and design thinking. "The kind of impact I am looking for is that people become aware and start talking about it in schools, tuitions, coaching institutes. I hope I become that example or inspiration for them to believe that it's possible to dream big even if you come from small cities and towns," he smiles.

Learning the ropes of IB School

As someone who comes from the grassroots, he understands the importance of education. "Education is the passport to success, and it holds for people who especially come from backgrounds like me. We have no other way, apart from education. But I don't want to confuse education with schooling, what I mean is learning," adds the teen, who has been elected to pursue the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme from JPIS, one of the best IB Schools in India. It was a few years ago that learnt about the concept of IB Schools through LinkedIn. "It was a fantasy school for me. But when I looked up the fees, I was shocked. I realised why I wasn't aware of these schools," he laughs.

[caption id="attachment_38164" align="aligncenter" width="492"] Adarsh Kumar with Ayush Periwal[/caption]

With his aspiration to get world class education and entrepreneurial mindset, he dreamt of top universities of the world and knew an IB School was a perfect stepping stone. "Moreover, I wanted to experience studying at an IB school as it's my dream to create an IB school in a budget-friendly way. The best way to do it is to experience it, that's when I decided to enroll in one." He began by cold mailing a few IB schools including JPIS, Jaipur. "I received an email from JPIS asking me to get on a call with group CEO Ayush Periwal who was fascinated by my story and invited me for a meet-up in Jaipur. That's when he told me I had received a scholarship for the next two years. For a moment, I felt I was daydreaming." Come July, and Adarsh will pack his bags to leave for Jaipur to experience studying at an IB School. "Since IB School is known to focus on practical knowledge and skill development, I'd want to learn and apply the same practicality in the area of education."

At just 16, Adarsh has come a long way, but he credits Skillzo for bringing about the change in him. "We got a ₹10 lakh investment for Skillzo from my mentor Rahul Narverkar and that changed everything - my confidence, my perception." An avid reader, he likes to journal as well as Netflix. Belting out advice to youngsters, he says, "Focus, hard work, and consistency is the key to success in every field. If you can access this article, you have no reason to say that you can't do it," he signs off.

Follow Adarsh Kumar on LinkedIn

Diana Awardee Aditi Gera rose above toxicity to find sisterhood through Empowerette

(April 15, 2022) "All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me..," said legendary American animator, Walt Disney, on the many challenges he overcame on his journey to success. For the 21-year-old Aditi Gera, early life wasn't uncomplicated either. The founder of Empowerette, Aditi recalls dealing with her share of hardships in school. "We were all girls but there was a lack of support and immense toxicity, with people competing with each other," says she in a conversation with Global Indian. Her initiative to bridge gaps in accessibility and opportunity for young, marginalised girls led her to win Diana Award in 2020. She has also been recognised as Ashoka Young Changemaker, and has been conferred Lead Like a Girl fellowship from Shenomics. [caption id="attachment_15033" align="aligncenter" width="592"] Aditi Gera, founder, Empowerette[/caption] Rising above adversity "There was an air of negativity and the absence of empathy, not just among students but from the teachers as well," says the young changemaker. With Empowerette, she wants to establish a sense of sisterhood that she found sorely lacking. "Women should lift each other up, instead of pulling one another down," says she. Aditi saw many women being forced to

Aditi saw many women being forced to compromise on their ambitions and passions while remaining within the patriarchal and hierarchical societal structure that reigns in India. "My grandmother had roots in Pakistan. She came from an economically backward family with many siblings. She was married off at 12 and my grandfather was almost thrice her age," she mentions.

It was deeply disturbing when the youngster came to know about it. In contrast, at age 12, Aditi was playing state-level basketball. "It changed my perspective on how women are positioned in our society," she says.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7Pdi5nyEuk[/embed]

The young changemaker describes her mother as a "highly intelligent, ambitious and smart woman. I have always looked up to her." She compromised on a career in the field of medicine in order to stay home and raise the kids. "To her, it seemed like a natural transition but I feel she could have done a lot more in her life."

Building a sisterhood

"A few years ago, I saw niece of my househelp being married off to a person who was nearly double her age. Clearly, things haven't changed much since my grandmother's time. It compelled me to start Empowerette," says the changemaker.

She and her team execute a one-on-one mentorship program enabling young girls in government schools to build their own identities and perceive themselves as leaders. "The programme is designed on a cohort-based model where we focus on developing leadership, confidence, communication and other career skill sets while paying attention to every individual's emotional well-being," Aditi explains.

Empowerette | Aditi Gera | Global Indian

After graduating as a finance major, Aditi has been working as a senior associate at Razorpay since the last four months. While enjoying the exposure at her maiden job, she devotes her weekends to Empowerette.

The empowerment journey

Aditi began Empowerette with four friends who were aligned with its vision. To carry forward the activities, they identified a government girls' school in their town, Ujjain. The pupils of this school are from rural areas and stay at the school hostel. However, convincing school authorities to believe in a bunch of nineteen-year-olds who wanted to add value to their students was an uphill task. The hostel warden, however, stepped up and made an effort to understand the intent behind their initiative. She also got the school management to agree to the proposal.

Today, Empowerette has grown to a team of seven, with plans to bring a couple of paid interns on board as well. All seven members have supported the cause as volunteers.

Mentoring young students

Empowerette is associated with two campuses catering to 120 girls in all. Around three hours every weekend are devoted to working with them. The process involves personality development with a focus on their leadership skills, improving communication skills and encouraging their curiosity and ability to dream.

The girls are taught societal norms and values to give them an informed vision so that they can contribute to society. They are also taught subjects like politics, healthcare, economic development and made aware of issues like climate change, and women's rights. "The girls themselves asked if they could be taught English, so we made that part of the Empowerette curriculum as well," Aditi says.

Motivation is key

"The idea is to maintain an engagement with these girls for as long as possible because changing a mindset takes time and cannot happen in a matter of weeks or even months," Aditi maintains. The team did not compromise on communication with the girls even during the pandemic. They conducted regular sessions over the phone to keep track of their growth and emotional well-being.

"Since the Empowerette team works voluntarily, keeping their excitement alive is paramount. The curiosity of the mentees also needs to be constantly stoked. Learning and developing new qualities is never easy considering the fact that the girls have been born into hardship. It's not a cakewalk to make them believe that the world is waiting for them," Aditi says, "If only they are able to present themselves to it."

On the personal front

Aditi wants to take up both business as well as social entrepreneurship in future. Her father, a businessman, is fully supportive of his daughter's dreams. The young changemaker also sees herself advocating for women's rights in the future and draws huge inspiration from women who have made a difference. “I really admire women in politics and those who have fought for the rights we now enjoy. One such person is Savitribai Phule. Girls in India are able to access basic education because she fought for these rights,” says the youngster.

[caption id="attachment_15036" align="aligncenter" width="576"] Aditi with her mother[/caption]

Aditi is an avid reader with a special inclination toward poetry by Tony Morrison, Mary Oliver, and the likes. With formal training in guitar and keyboard, she uses the instruments as a medium of rejuvenation. Though basketball has been her passion, a sudden interest in tennis is keeping her on toes, literally. In active support of a more equal world, Aditi is keen to take Empowerette to great heights by widening its reach.

Follow Aditi Gera on LinkedIn and Instagram

Reading Time: 5 mins