Dear TFIx Family,
At Teach For India, our leadership is centered on our commitment to Personal Transformation, Collective Action, and Education Equity. After 14 years of exploring who we are and our purpose, building relationships, organizing partners to multiply and deepen our impact, and deepening our understanding of educational equity, we have bucketed our commitment into three levels - Self, Others, and India.
TFIx incubated Entrepreneurs are running 37 diverse Fellowships in the country. These Fellowships provide opportunities to local youth of their region to take ownership of Self and Others (lead the community around them) so that every child in India can access an excellent and equitable education. This newsletter talks about this three-leveled leadership that we are trying to create across the country - in our Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurs' Fellows (teachers/leaders), and their Students.
Read on to know more!
LEADING SELF
We'll take steps to discover who we are, cultivate belief in ourselves, find our purpose, and master our learning goals.
3 months into Incubation! #Learnings from Quarter 1
As a part of the Incubation year support, we recently had our first Learning Circle with the 2023 cohort of Entrepreneurs in a hybrid way.
Who am I as a Leader?
Unleashing our true potential!
Last month, the entire TFIx team was immersed in a wonderful leadership opportunity facilitated by Nvisioning and Beyond Consulting (NVBC) to connect with self and others and learn the meta-skills and frameworks to unleash our true potential as individuals and team members. Listen to Nikita Bansal, Senior Manager, Program and Entrepreneur Partner, TFIx share her experience of feeling empowered as a leader post the workshop!
LEADING OTHERS
We live by our commitments and ensure they are aligned with our words and actions. We are honest with others and ourselves.
The Fellowships run by our Entrepreneurs provide opportunities to local youth to take ownership of SELF and OTHERS by leading the community around them so that even the most vulnerable child in INDIA can access an excellent, equitable education.
#DoMoreBeMore
"I realized the crucial roles a teacher plays in shaping a student's perceptions and ambitions and decided to empower more Anitas like me."
Fellowship City Visit: Teach For India, Kolkata
To deepen their understanding of vision-action alignment, organizational structures, and the support ecosystem required to run a successful Fellowship program, we partnered with Teach For India, Kolkata, to create an in-person learning experience for our 2023 Entrepreneurs. Teach For India, Kolkata is TFI's newest area of operations, and hence, was more relatable to our Entrepreneurs' context, who are at a nascent stage of Fellowship designing. Entrepreneurs got a chance to experience the rich culture of the TFI Kolkata Team and rigorous operations on site.
Gaurav Dutt, City Director at Teach For India, Kolkata, enabled them to understand the purpose of a robust program design and a leader's role in holding the organization's culture.
We are immensely grateful to the entire TFI Kolkata team for welcoming us to their sit, and creating a rigorous learning experience for our Entrepreneurs and team!
Networking Mela
During Learning Circle 1, we explored healthy collaborations with our partners - Involve Learning Solutions Foundation, Simple Education Foundation, Jai Vakeel Foundation, and Teach For India. With their vast experience in the Education sector, these four organizations joined us to present their Student Curriculum and interact with our Entrepreneurs to accelerate their learning.
Fellows - Our Entrepreneurs' ground Warriors!
During the Incubation year, our Entrepreneurs receive training, direct support, and leadership development that enables them to successfully launch a Fellowship program as part of their organization and/or community.
The Fellow Curriculum is specifically designed by TFIx Entrepreneurs for the personal & professional development of their Fellows. This is towards enabling them to implement balanced, varied, and effective teaching and learning methods for children that they reach.
LEADING INDIA
We’ll work in Partnership for a better India. We will understand inequity and its root causes, discover the truth of the world, live in harmony with the environment around us, and envision and create solutions for a better India.
Leadership India Needs
We believe that our Entrepreneurs' Fellows (Teachers/Leaders) are our equal partners in building the movement for educational equity. 'Leadership India Needs' is an initiative to document stories of leadership, resilience, and transformation emerging from various Fellowship Programs run by TFIx Entrepreneurs. We interacted with some Fellows across the country to understand their journey, challenges, and achievements.
Here is a short video from our conversation with Vrushabh, a Fellow Alumni of Learning Companions (incubated by TFIx in 2020). Vrushabh works with a vision to bring holistic education to children from the Bharwad community of rural Nagpur. He's now working as a Program Associate, directly facilitating learning experiences and leadership in Fellows who teach these children. Watch the video to learn more about his transformational impact journey!
"The Fellowship was not just about teaching but a sum total of experiences that fostered courage in me! My dreams are now focused on creating a broader impact. I hope to work closely with under-resourced tribal and rural communities to develop sustainable livelihoods."
"When you Teach with Love, you Lead with Love."
This Teacher's Day, let's celebrate the power of our Educators, who are leading India in the truest sense by enabling every child to utilize their potential to the fullest. Here are two of our Entrepreneurs' Students sharing how their teachers' belief and investment helped them to find a spot for themselves in this ever-changing world!
Tapping into our Focus Regions!
UPDATES!
Continuing to Strengthen our Alumni's Fellowships!
As a part of the Post-incubation support, we facilitate the ‘Sharing cum Learning Circle’ (SLC) with Entrepreneur Partners (Alumni). It is a space to celebrate their journeys so far, share their challenges as they run Fellowships in their contexts, draw synergies, and experience meaningful learning spaces on need-based topics that emerge from the groups.