Help Raise Funds For Higher Education | Milaap
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Help Raise Funds For Higher Education
  • Piyush

    Created by

    Piyush Tanawade
  • AS

    This fundraiser will benefit

    Arushi Sharma

    from Noida, Uttar Pradesh

My name is Arushi and I have received an offer from New York University for a Masters's program in Media, Culture, and Communication. 

My journey so far:

I started my professional journey with one of the largest NGOs in India, my numerous trips to rural India in far-flung areas brought me closer to the grassroots realities of our society. I found myself working with communities, who had never witnessed electricity in their village or the mortality rate of babies were left at the doorstep of destiny. The opportunity of working in these areas made me realize the power of work right then and defined the scope in which I had to train myself in the future.

Communication as a skill comes organically to me, I spent time building capacity to harness this skill in the development sector. In my next organization, I just did that. We are more connected than ever before, but that’s not the case for thousands of public-school teachers in India. Lack of internet connectivity in rural areas holds teachers back in building their capacity thus, making rote learning the only option for children.

Utilizing the trust the CEO of the organization shown in me, I designed and executed an offline, multilingual mobile application for these teachers which helps them with new content and methodologies of classroom learning and enables interaction with other teachers to share new ideas and innovation. I am excited to share that this application is being used by over 200,000 teachers in India.

As a communication and advocacy specialist, I used my experience on the ground to influence various stakeholders at the policy level towards the cause of education with the help of media, social media, collaterals, and documents. I have held workshops for students in the Delhi School of Economics and Indian Institute of Mass communication to share my learnings from the field and present data for learning levels. I worked with the professors of Harvard Business School to document two case studies on “Transforming primary education through Innovation”.

I currently work for a bilateral non-profit organization leading the communication team in India for various programs in education, health, and livelihoods. This is where I am now - young, creative, hands-on, and working at scale with an indomitable spirit of getting things done to make the world incrementally better than yesterday. My ability to get things done comes from the diverse experience that I have gathered in the last seven years. At 27, I have already worked across digital media activism, technology for development, communication research, and design thinking.

I come from humble beginnings – my grandmother was illiterate; my grandfather was a factory worker and my father had to work on wage jobs after school to pay for his tuition during his teenage years. He made the right choice at the right time of learning computers with the help of a mentor in the 1980s, which pulled him and the family out of poverty. Fortunately, during his struggles, he understood the importance of education and sent me and my brother to the best schools possible.

Future plans:

In India, it is increasingly important to create effective and regular content to meet the development needs of our complex society. India is among the two largest but the fastest-growing smartphone market in the world. Even populations with low media penetration are now online, on affordable smartphones and cheap data plans.

Engagement with content has skyrocketed but simultaneously, India has also become the largest producer of misinformation. It is not to say that Indians are not looking for knowledge or accurate information for issues that affect them, online. I intend to fill this gap by working for these organizations. Most of these organizations rely on traditional means of communication and lack skills in an effective content creation. Effective and targeted communication campaigns and strategies for these organizations will help attract organized funding for the highly impactful work they do.

Using my expertise in translating knowledge into engaging communication outputs, I want to work on creating content that provides people with accurate information through varied media. My decision to apply for this program at NYU harbored from this passion, I aim to gain skills that help me work on linkages between a theoretical understanding of media and communication and its practical application.

I specifically want to explore how technology can be used in different socio-economic settings, especially evaluating technological fit for education in developing countries like mine. I want to be the first woman in my family to attain skills and education from abroad.

How can you help?
Due to the pandemic, many financial institutions have not offered scholarships and funding for applicants like me. I am planning to fund my tuition fees through partial loans and living expenses through part-time jobs. But due to the high amount of tuition fee, I need your help to achieve my dream of attaining this prestigious degree.

Particulars (2 years)Cost in dollars Cost in Rupees 
Tuition fee932166981990
Loan 534034000000
funding through parents133501000000
Remaining amount 26,4361,981,990

I want to make a humble request to all of you to contribute graciously within your capacity and share the words with your friends and family. For any more information, you can write to me at arushi.sh02@gmail.com

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