Tales of the Tribe: Aakrit’s Literacy Project of Creating STEM Modules for Underprivileged Kids
“I’ve always been a Math, and Science person. I realized that I had the privilege of being able to heavily study these subjects, with the right resources and environment. But there were a lot of others, who didn’t have the same advantage. It’s not like people from the low socio-economic sector wouldn’t want to have access to getting the jobs that we might have the option of applying to – it’s just that they don’t have the means to do the same.
When I started thinking more and more about this situation, this disparity… I realized that I wanted to go one step further and do something about it. This was all when I was in the 11th grade.
I wanted to be able to form my own curriculum, with the right mix of practicality and theory – I wanted to form a structure that can be adapted by anybody and therefore making STEM fields, not as inaccessible as they are!
I wanted to get in touch with kids from the underprivileged sector and help them explore the world of opportunities around them – I wanted them to connect with their surroundings and do all these fun activities. I wanted to make learning fun, and easy for them. Just like how it is, for the rest of us.
I used to Google, to try and figure out how I can go about executing my plan. I wanted to make sure I have it all in place before I launch – because I wanted to make the most of it. I just needed the right kind of guidance to start.
That’s when I stumbled upon TribesforGood, online and when I read about what they exactly do – I figured enrolling in their programme was what I needed to jumpstart my project!
After I joined, my mentor Mandeep and I sat down and compartmentalised everything, we put a direction to every goal I had – and therefore contributed to the larger picture. We first worked on the subject I would teach – once we zeroed down on that, we then moved on to articulating the curriculum for that particular subject.
Over time, after going through trial and error we finally curated this compact bridge course – which was full-proof and ready for launch!
I didn’t realise that there were so many things I hadn’t accounted for before or planned for, but through being mentored and working with so many more resources and shared knowledge – I just grew more confident in my idea and the final product we had.
It wasn’t just Mandeep, but I met a couple of more people through TribesforGood who were experts in their own way and added their own creativity to the module – which made it so much better. What was just a seedling of thought was finally coming to light and I couldn’t wait to see a child actually learning through what we had worked on.
The next steps, are getting in touch with various foundations, volunteers and collaborators and onboard them as part of this programme. To make people believe in this vision as much as I do and everyone else who worked with me on this has.
I just want to see a world where, where we come from and what our situation is doesn’t hold us back from learning all this amazing knowledge that’s out there in the world for us.
The experience and passion I’ve felt with education and for Science and Math specifically are what I want everyone else to feel too!
Because on experiences like this, you can’t put a price…”
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Tags: Education
