Friends, as many of you know, I have spent the past five months in Johannesburg, South Africa at African Leadership Academy where I am helping to develop the next generation of entrepreneurial, courageous, and values-driven young leaders in Africa. I wish to realize this unique vision and approach to education in my home country, India.

While the full program is at least 3-4 years away, I am now taking the first step towards this audacious mission. Over the past few months, I’ve been working with a stellar team to design two excellent leadership boot camps (3-5 days) for high-potential teenagers who are deeply committed to community impact. The result is Parivartan Boot Camp, which is scheduled to be held from 20th-22nd December 2018 (3-day) and in May 2019 (5-day). These boot camps serve to both identify high-potential Indian youth and test hypotheses surrounding the implementation of our innovative educational model.  

We have designed a unique curriculum centered on design thinking and creative confidence, drawing from ALA's decade long efforts in leadership thinking. We have established a partnership with a local high school in rural Karnataka, Little Rock Indian School, for our first camp. We are not charging any student fees for the first camp hence we are running this fund raising campaign to subsidize our operations.

Why Parivartan Academy?

India is held back by a lack of high-quality leaders and socially-responsible citizens. We have many under-qualified, unethical and ill-informed leaders at the forefront of governments, businesses and civil societies. This has resulted in massive inequality and widespread poverty, with 300 million Indians living below poverty line. India's government is sitting on a ticking time bomb. With a median age of 25, its citizens are not only some of the youngest in the world but also the age group is the fastest growing on the planet. The youth of India, if invested in, can become a powerful source of innovation and prosperity.

The root cause of India’s leadership and socio-economic crisis is the broken pipeline of innovative, ethical and young change makers. The majority of Indians go through a dismal education system where they are taught to be uncritically competitive, to solely pursue STEM education and to follow undesirable societal norms. India records one of the biggest brain drains in the world, where young professionals leave the country to seek jobs and opportunities, never to return.

I want to build a world-class educational institution focused on critical thinking, creative confidence and entrepreneurial leadership, thereby educating and empowering young Indians. This new system of educating youth will prepare them to think creatively, teach them to be curious and give them the skills to create new solutions that will solve issues plaguing the country and the world.

Parivartan Finances, for the curious:

The overall budget for the first Boot Camp is 3600 USD (or 2.6 lakh INR). Please refer to the pie charts below for a detailed split of these costs across categories such as venue, travel, accommodation, catering and employee costs.

We have managed to subsidize 47% of our operational costs by partnering with the venue (Little Rock Indian School). Hence, we have a deficit of 53%, or 2000 USD (or 1.5 lakh INR) to be raised via crowd funding. We have not charged any of our participants as we want to ensure that we admit every single student irrespective of their socio-economic backgrounds.
 

Other similar projects:

I have been privileged to work with and interact with professionals and visionaries from ALA, ALU, LALA, LEAF Academy and Avasara Academy (Pune). Please go through their websites to learn more about their work in youth education

African Leadership Academy (ALA)	http://africanleadershipacademy.org/
African Leadership University (ALU)	https://www.alueducation.com/
Latin American Leadership Academy (LALA)	https://www.latinamericanleadershipacademy.org
LEAF Academy	https://www.leafacademy.eu/
Avasara Academy	http://www.avasaraleadershipinstitute.org/

More about me:

I was born and brought up in Brahmavar, a little village in Karnataka. I graduated from IIT Madras in 2016 with a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering and joined McKinsey & Company. After my two year stint as a management consultant, I decided to join African Leadership Academy to learn more about education and leadership in the Global South. My vision is to build a world-class high school in India to develop the next generation of change makers who would be socially responsible citizens and community champions.

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shashankasrao/