Interview with Nikunj Beria, an MIT, Manipal alumni and Teach For India Fellow

Nikunj-Beria-an-MIT-Manipal-alumni-and-Teach-For-India-Fellow
Everybody faces obstacles when they are about to choose the correct path and often the obstacles are the people who care about you the most.

Q1. Can you give us a brief introduction of yourself?

When I am asked to introduce myself I always land up in a fix since its hard to believe that only 3 months of fellowshiphas transformed me completely. Suddenly there is a clear goal , a clear plan and a sense of urgency that no other work has brought in me. Leading a cleanliness drive, being a sports teacher or sharing the responsibility of 72 kids in the class + the 2000 children who come to this school has truly transformed me in terms of confidence and optimism. Even when I thought of giving up a particular task, the smile of the kids and their unconditional love just makes me want to do that extra bit.

Nikunj Beria an MIT Manipal alumni and Teach For India Fellow
Everybody faces obstacles when they are about to choose the correct path and often the obstacles are the people who care about you the most.

Q2.What is your educational background?

I am an alumni of Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal and graduated in 2011 with a B.E degree in Electronics and Communications.
Q3.When did you first hear about Teach For India?

I Heard of Teach For India in my college on the day of their on-campus visit, It was sometime in January just before the last application deadline.

Q4. Please share with us your experience of the application process right from filling the form to the assessment centre.

The application form took me 4 days to fill as I was extremely cautious having heard about TFI’s stringent selection bar. The application form is long but I urge the applicants to not take it lightly even when it feels never-ending. Having passed the 1st round, the phone interview seemed pretty simple and casual. All I can say about the third round is be thoroughly prepared and give in your best. Also the third round itself has four stages which gets completed in one day. On a concluding note, be patient and understanding if you think the selection procedure takes a long time because we need to understand that TFI has to deal with thousands of applications.

Q5. How easy/difficult was it for you to make your decision to join Teach For India?

Literacy=Prosperity

This very true adage implies that the more education you are exposed to, the better your chances are at being prosperous. True. Very true. There is unfortunately another adage that is equally true and sadly, very relevant to the present socio-economic setting in our country. “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer”.

Anyone who can connect these two adages would be able to understand why I joined TFI.

Everybody faces obstacles when they are about to choose the correct path and often the obstacles are the people who care about you the most. My parents were against the idea of me joining TFI for career-related reasons since I was just starting with my professional life. However, due to the open work culture in TFI my father personally mailed the CEO Shaheen Mistri and her positive and detailed reply made me accept the offer from TFI.

Q6. How has your experience of being a Fellow been so far?

To put it very simply, I am experiencing the most challenging, satisfying and enriching time of my life.

 

About Teach For India: Teach For India, a project of Teach To Lead, is a nationwide movement of outstanding college graduates and young professionals who will commit two-years to teach full-time in under resourced schools and who will become lifelong leaders working from within various sectors towards the pursuit of equity in education. Today, Teach For India is in 5 cities – Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai. They have a total of 550 Fellows and 196 Alumni working towards eliminating educational inequity.

Register: The first step of the application process is to register with Teach For India by providing basic information.

Apply: The second step is to fill in the application form. The form is the first place where you can familiarise us with your achievements and thoughts.

Please click here to apply for the 2013 Fellowship program.

 

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