Not only in India but across the globe, the COVID-19 induced lockdown gave rise to online education. However, according to the Oxfam survey reports, nearly 80 percent of the parents complained about the non-delivery of proper education since lockdown in states like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh, of which, Bihar accounts for 100 percent.
Meet 16-year-old Arushi Aggarwal who decided to make an impact and bring a change through the online education system. Currently an 11th-grade student, she is offering quality education and covering the in-between gaps in the system through her not-for-profit initiative, Unknown16.
Who saw this coming from just a 16-year old girl?
In conversation with LifeBeyondNumbers, Arushi shared what inspired her to take a different route unlike the children of her age who are in the race to get good grades, and fulfilling parent’s dreams.
One big idea – Unknown16
Hailing from Hisar, Haryana, Arushi moved to New Jersey when she was 10 years old. Her education has largely been in Bangalore and New Jersey. Currently, she’s pursuing her Class 11 at West Windsor Plainsboro High School South, New Jersey.
“When I was in 8th grade, my robotics team made it to the FIRST World Championships in Detroit, Michigan. This experience opened my eyes to the minority of girls in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). In my team of 14 members, there were only 2 girls,” Arushi said with a surprised tone. And this is what exactly made her think hard about it.
After talking to mentors and connecting with the girls at the competition, she found that lack of confidence is the major reason behind less or no-participation. Plus, most of the students don’t have that confidence to try something new. So, in 9th grade then, Arushi started Unknown16 to provide students with resources and opportunities and build confidence in them.
When asked about her inspiration behind this idea, especially education, she replied, “My grandmother, Mrs. Swarn Bansal, has spent her life participating in social work and I was inspired by her to continue her legacy”. This felt so heart-warming to see this young girl following in her family’s footsteps, which is a great thing these days.
Unknown16’s mission and vision are clear from the start itself. Being an international non-profit organization, they are dedicated to close the gender gap in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Unknown16 is also focused on encouraging students to undertake a project that solves a social issue by applying the knowledge they learned from STEM.
“We aim to instill a love for STEM to students from K-12 by using it in the right ways. We hope to show them how innovative and creative they can be and encourage them to develop ideas that are powerful, disruptive, and cutting-edge,” says Arushi looking at the ubiquity of technology in every field.
Behind the scenes
For a young-girl like Arushi, balancing things between school and work became no less than an entrepreneurial skill, as she operates the whole thing online from New Jersey.
The age groups that are a part of Unknown16 range from 5 years to 19 years. By the end of the year, 1000+ underprivileged kids and youth will benefit from the mission
Currently, she has a group of volunteers in the US and India who are also taking classes as part of Unknown16.
“We mainly take classes through skype or zoom and communicate with the volunteers in India through WhatsApp. We teach them English and computers,” mentions Arushi.
Stumbling blocks in the process
Although she has a strong aim to bring a change in those kids’ lives, struggles never stopped following her. She has set up a GoFundMe and Facebook page and raised over $1500 in donations. By using those funds, in partnership with the other party, she has set up the labs in 4 villages of Bihar.
And she didn’t stop there. “Children have not been going to school since lockdown which is highly impacting their studies/learning. So, I collected more funds to distribute laptops to underprivileged students in Odisha and Jharkhand”. For funding and to educate these children, Arushi also collaborated with local gratitude groups, Let’s Express Gratitude Group of Grateful hearts, and partnered with the IIP foundation.
“When teaching these kids, it was a bit difficult to communicate as they don’t speak English and I’m not a very good Hindi speaker,” she shared some of the other challenges faced in the process.
However, to tackle this issue, she came up with a better idea. “When designing my curriculums for them, I decided to use a lot of pictures and communicated with them by connecting a lot of what I teach to their daily lives”. She also asked them to send her the pictures of objects they see every day based on her classes to relate them to their daily life and make proper connections.
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What’s next?
Arushi’s mission includes the concept of train the trainer.
“We empower youth from villages so they can further teach young students from their villages. I am also planning to partner with government schools in India to host more workshops and also my hackathon at a larger scale to impact more students”.
Recently, she has started new batches with some NGOs from Delhi. “I have also collected funds to buy laptops for students in Odisha and Jharkhand. In December, I am starting digital classes for these students” says Arushi.