Melting Pot

An Alumni of Akanksha, Nirjala has completed grade 10. She feels so blessed to be a part of the Akanksha school. Akanksha gave her the opportunity to play football and soon football became her passion and she got a chance to go to London and explore her passion even more. She went to a camp called KER, where she met 100's of revolutionaries. Nirjala soon got an opportunity to visit New York and be...

Sunita is a big art connoisseur and has donated several art pieces to benefit the Akanksha Foundation. She has helped several people from their New Jersey USA community to be a part of Akanksha and is now trying to do the same in the UK since she has recently moved there. Apple Podcasts: https://buff.ly/2Vf8vv8⠀ Spotify: https://buff.ly/2Vf8uHA⠀ Google Podcasts:https://buff.ly/2Vds6LX⠀ . . . . -Or...

Namrata Khanvilkar was an exceptional student in her school days at Acharya Vinoba Bhave School in Pune, and is still trail-blazing as an Akanksha Alumni.  She gained admission on a full ride scholarship to St. Olaf College in Minnesota, starting in Sept. 2017 and has recently graduated. She also studied for two years at UWC in Armenia, again on a full scholarship. Namrata is the first Akanks...

Fatema has studied in Akanksha for eleven years and has been raised by her mother. She lives in Mankhurd so it is hard to travel by train for half an hour in order to reach school.  But all these difficulties were nothing compared to the good quality education she has received from her school. Being a part of Akanksha has influenced her life to a great extent and has made her a confident indi...

Vidya is the CEO of Antara International, working to catalyze the delivery of public health solutions to improve maternal and child health outcomes.  She previously worked in management consulting and public health with McKinsey & Company and with their Global Public Health Practice. Vidya also worked in commercial asset management in renewable energy with sPower-AES.  Vidya is based...

Tahura is studying in 10th grade and Akanksha has been her support system since the first time she stepped in her school. She has been guided and always taught that it is okay to be different and we need to appreciate it. She is really fortunate to be an Akanksha student and has written a book this year!    Apple Podcasts: https://buff.ly/2Vf8vv8⠀ Spotify: https://buff.ly/2Vf8uHA⠀ G...

Jayshree has a master’s degree in Zoology from Pune University and is trained in Non-Profit Management and Leadership from the Boston University. She is also an India School Leadership Institute (ISLI) Fellow. She began her career as a research assistant at the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun and went on to work with World Wide Fund for Nature-India and New England Aquarium, Boston. After...

Alumni of 2013 batch of KCTVN, Yashodhara is pursuing a BPed (bachelor's in physical education) degree. She is also a professional Cyclist.  She has been competing for the last 6 years and her most recent achievement was representing India in the 2019 South Asian Games. She grabbed a third position in a downhill event - India's first International medal in downhill MTB. She believes that a fe...

Sejal has had an incredible 30 year career and joins the Akanksha family most recently from the Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT), where she led a strategic initiative focused on engaging businesses in the community.  At CFT she worked with over 400 companies and also supported many individual donors with their philanthropic giving and engagement. Among other career highlights, she also s...

Preeti is 23 years old and a BA psychology graduate. She is an Akanksha alumni and has worked with Akanksha as an intern too.  “I believe that everyone should have a safe space for expression and therefore with 4 other friends we co-founded SHOR, a poetry club where people from all walks of life are welcomed to come and express themselves in whichever artistic form they wish to.” says Preeti...

Chinmaya is a 2012 Teach for India fellow and a founding member of the first ever standalone Secondary school in Pune. She has Completed her Bachelors degree  from Fergusson College, B.Ed. from SNDT University and a Masters from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS, Mumbai). During the two-year fellowship with Teach for India (Pune), she joined as a Secondary School English teacher at...

Currently studying in 9th grade at LAPMEMS school, Akanksha, Dhanashree is from Pune. Her journey until now is all about getting to know herself better and constantly learning new things and creating a positive impact on society. At Akanksha, she is being nurtured providing her the knowledge and skills to recognise and solve problems. She aspires to keep learning and work in the Indian Education S...

Chitra leads the development and communications team and has been with Akanksha for over 10 years. She drives fundraising initiatives for all of Akanksha’s programs and works closely with the Board of Directors & the CEO to raise funds to support the strategic direction of the organisation.  Her role involves planning and implementing both internal and external communication for all stake...

A sneak peak into the RISE a series featuring the people of the Akanksha Foundation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hailing from Jodhpur, Jai has been working in cinema for 17 years and worked as an assistant director on feature films with Wes Anderson, Zoya Akhtar, Rajkumar Hirani, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Gurinder Chaddha, Ashim Ahluwalia, Abhinay Deo, Rajesh Mapuskar and many others before he started making films independently.    After working on 32 feature films and more than 300 TV commercials,...

Shreya Dev Dube studied photography in Melbourne and later went on to specialise in cinematography at Eicar, Paris.  BITTU her most recent short film won the student Academy Awards, 2020.Her feature length film called Cat Sticks, premiered at Slamdance and won the Grand jury prize at Mammoth Lake film festival. BBC1 premiered A suitable boy, directed by Mira Nair. Shreya operated the camera f...

Ariadna Cabrol studied Drama at Meisner Technique with Javier Jalitó Cava in Barcelona and afterwards she moved to London in order to pursue her studies at "LISPA (London International School of Performing Arts)".  Ariadna made her film debut with JOVES by Carles Torras and Ramon Térmens. After working in several productions she played the lead, Eloïse, in Jesus Garay’s ELOISE LOVER’S. ...

Nebbou was born in Bayonne in France and started his career by appearing in the film My Sweet Home , directed by Filipos Tsitos . In 2004, the director Samir Nasr offered him the leading role in the film Seeds of Doubt , which won the Golden Gate Award for best film at the San Francisco Film Festival . 2005 was a turning point in Nebbou's career thanks to the film Schläfer by German film director...

Rachel Noll James is an award-winning screenwriter, producer and director. She is also a classically trained actor with a background in both theatre and film. Notable credits include feature films 'The Storyteller' 'Malibu Road' and 'Don't Pass Me By', and short films 'Follow the River' 'Paramnesia' and 'Half Light'. She was the recipient of the Silver Prize in the Page Screenwriting Awards 2015 a...

Maaza Mengiste is a novelist and essayist. She is the author of the novel, The Shadow King , which is shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, and was a 2020 LA Times Book Prize Fiction finalist. It was named best book of the year by the New York Times , NPR, Elle , Time , and more. The Shadow King is now available in paperback and was called “a brilliant novel…compulsively readable” by Salman Rushd...

Mansi Zaveri of Kidsstoppress.com fame is a fab mommy on-the-go. A true believer in 'explore to learn', Mansi started her parenting blog leaving behind a plush corporate job to be able to take care of her children. Also a Podcaster, Brand Strategist and Yoga practitioner, Mansi is mom-of-two and contributes to various webzines and has to her credit the title of being India’s first parenting blogge...

A photojournalist currently based between Beirut and London, Adib Chowdhury was raised between the muted greens of the English countryside and the lush greens of Bangladesh's paddy-fields. With a background in politics (MSc in international relations and Conflict Studies at the London School of Economics) his projects contain a heavy emphasis on research and giving agency to those photographed. Th...

Esha Desai is the author of HotCuppaFiction, a collection of short stories to let readers enjoy their reading in small doses, one sip at a time. A lover of stories, Esha is herself a lover of coffee and has curated all stories of her collection with stories which are different from one another and not limited to any one genre. Through this book you can savour the strong taste of ‘thrillers’, citru...

A communications professional who focuses on making technical information accessible and meaningful to a wider audience, Maha is the Editor of Professional Investor Magazine (CFA UK). Maha works with companies on improving their investment literature, thought leadership content, marketing materials, strategic communications, and magazine contributions. Author of The Curse of Mohenjodaro, Beautiful...

Brice is an intrapreneur/entrepreneur, a sustainability defensor, and an optimist. He founded a company called Bizsu to help companies grow while being more sustainable. He is also a sustainability writer for various newspapers and magazines including The Business Times. With Bizsu, Brice and his team are focussing on solutions like patented aircon solution reducing your energy consumption by 25%,...