FIRST STEPS

Hi Everybody,

This is a joint mail from Subramaniam and Karthik Gopal. Firstly, apologies for not writing in earlier. And congratulations to everyone involved in this initiative!
Like most of our earlier initiatives, this one promises to be exciting, sincere and noble. It is wonderful to note that we have come together once again, to empower a student by helping him pursue his engineering graduation.

However, while we agree with the thought that we could 'make a difference', our format of delivery could be re-looked into.

As it stands:

The current initiative, as stated, aims to sponsor the education of one student in SSN college of Engineering covering a period of 4 years.

The sponsoring body (informally) would be The Power Studs.

Mode of Fund transfer: We operate through a Common group-bank account. Account statements would be sent to the group mail id to ensure transparency, accessibility and accountability.

Selection of Student: Who and How- To be finalized.

Estimated amount: Collection in progress

Where WE stand in the Bigger Picture:

The true objective of education is to take a multi-dimensional approach to developing a person and help him/her form a holistic view to life and the world. However, by design, default or both, there are countless people who cannot afford education. This is where we hope to step in and bring a difference.

Why something else???

Our logic is simple! Engineering is an expensive proposition today and it doesnt take a great mind to understand that there are a number of students and prospective students who find the fees intimidating/prohibitive. So why not provide for the education of one or more students???

Fair enough!!
While the intent of our initiative cannot be questioned by reasonable minds, our format of delivery could be given a re-think.

Consider this...
The most important phase of education is Primary education. It is the phase where the fundamentals are incorporated in a student. Having a strong academic foundation is absolutely essential and it is the concepts that the child learns in primary classes that set him up for higher classes, be it languages, mathematics, science, social sciences, sports etc., and not to mention the basic soft skills required for life in general.

Consider that it this phase of education that provides the child an atmosphere to compete, while still feeling secure.

Consider that a good part of 'personality' is developed during this phase of life.

There are plenty of families who do not even consider the option of providing their children with this most essential form of education!

Should we try something on this front?????

What we can do:

Sponsor the education of children at the Primary level.
For Example:
- Choose families from a community (like a fishing community) OR
- Children from a school (who are bound to be from different social backgrounds)
and fund their education. The implementation needs to be further looked into as it involves more complexity and requires more thought from better minds.

Why this idea could be better:

By moving into the space of Primary education, we would in effect allow ourselves to
- Reach out to more children: More students could benefit from the amount required to fund the education of ONE Engineering student.
- Bring more depth to the initiative by contributing to children at a phase when they tend to be most vulnerable and incapable of making mature choices. A student, provided with education of the right quality at this stage, is likely to be more aware of his/her Career Options, Goals and Steps required to fulfill the same.

Ours is a case in point: At the end of our schooling, though we were on the verge of stepping out of adolescence, most of us did not even have a clear idea regarding our choice of career. Engineering provided us with a comfortable choice as we felt “nothing can possibly be wrong with the accepted trend of the times!!”

- Nonetheless, our ties with college will continue to hold. We understand that the SSN trust is actively involved in philanthropic initiatives. The execution of our initiative could be routed through the trust.

A Personal Note:
POWER is an idea. A thought. And it is our duty to ensure that it does not become exclusive to any person, time or place. Now that we are all out of college and working in different places, lets try to manifest this enthusiasm and unity into a Great Big Ball of energy that has a far wider reach. We could reach out not just to people outside our batch, but to people anywhere across the world. Blogs, Chat rooms and Social networking communities are here to stay.
True to the spirit of POWER this website is strictly open to all.


Regards,
Subu & Karthik.