EMPOWERING THROUGH EDUCATION

Teenage years are years of building on knowledge and skills to prepare for a higher-level course of study, of goal setting and aspirations and of exploring spaces to identify possible career paths. It is a vulnerable and precarious age and in the absence of any support for children in the communities, it is an age when many drop out to support the family income or simply stay at home due to the inability of parents to support them for further education.

 

The Alumni and Scholarship Programme is an anchor for each Udaan child, post Grade 10, to turn to for emotional, moral, academic and financial support to tide over the trying period of doubts ad decisions. The Alumni Programme begins with sessions of aptitude testing and career counseling to understand one’s strengths and challenges in order to choose an appropriate course of study. A one-on-one counseling session helps students make an informed choice towards the path of higher level education.

 

The Scholarship Programme, then, provides financial aid towards the child’s junior and senior graduation years, be it for mainstream college or open school, a vocational or professional course or coaching classes. The performance of each child is monitored in regular alumni meetings to erase hurdles of any nature which could set the child back in his strides towards progress. Visits to industries, professional college fests and guest lectures ensure that the child is introduced to the real world of business and commerce, stimulating him to work on himself to be a part of this world in the future. A unique feature of the Udaan Alumni Programme is the recruitment of Udaan alumni, as paid assistants in its existing programmes without impinging on their academic responsibilities, to provide a small stipend to meet their daily needs.

 

The aim of the programme is to be a mentor and guide for students to help them stay focused on their goal as they begin their second phase of learning journey.

 

An Insight

 

After the euphoria of passing Grade 10 dies down, a child starts getting lost in the whirlwind of online admissions, choice of college, which stream, which subjects, amount to be paid, how to get the money, earning while studying. All these question marks are gently erased, one-by-one, when the child is guided through each challenge through aptitude tests and career counseling which help draw up a realistic path for the student. Admissions done, scholarships secured, the child looks forward to new learning. But suddenly, a parent decides that the child needs to earn and stop studying. A search for an appropriate temporary job begins in or beyond Udaan.

 

All throughout the child’s confusion, immaturity, sparks of responsibility and teenage abandonment, Udaan handholds the teenager, ensuring that he stays focused on his goal.