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Read More →“The stimulus of the job is a motivation in itself” – Smriti Singhal
“After observing the dismal condition of education around us, my friends and I, were discussing how best to bring about small meaningful changes to dissolve the stereotypes of education”, says Smriti Singhal
Smriti Singhal was in her second year of college when she envisaged a platform for holistic development of individuals, and for the past 3 years, she has been working every day to achieve her goals. Smriti co-founded The Education Tree, (with Kunal Arora and Karan Katyal). It is now India’s fastest growing youth-led organization created to foster and facilitate all forms of education.
“We lay a special emphasis on the comprehensive growth of the individual. All students learn different arts including music, theatre, crafts, photography with us,” says the 24 year old.
“I faced skepticism from the society in the form of opinions that regarded my chosen field as a ‘mere hobby which I was choosing as a career due to my young age”
We asked how her family and society reacted when she started up at such an early age and she said, “My parents shared my dream, gradually it became their own dream, and they have lived every moment of transforming my dream into a reality.” TET currently operates across a network of different schools and universities, giving a platform to all students to follow their passion and enhance their skills.
They are also trying to bridge the gap between the college students and corporates with their Youth Marketing and Engagement projects. “The Youth Marketing and Engagement Projects help in fostering growth among the students associated with us by providing them the much needed corporate exposure,” she adds. Being an amateur in this arena, Smriti says that she embarks on a new journey every day without any idea of the way things will transpire.
“The challenges are many and varied, right from identifying my flaws and working on them, to building up on my abilities and trying to maximise my potential”
Each day is a new challenge at startups, but when the team observes their efforts change into actions and results, it is truly rewarding. “The enthusiasm and the energy of the students who work with us, creates a burgeoning aura which pushes me to try harder, and this inspires the whole team,” says the Corp Communication graduate. Fostering students into leaders so that they reach stellar heights, is both an ambition as well as a hope for TET.
The stimulus of the job is a motivation in itself.
Smriti believes that when entrepreneurs engage themselves in a startup, everyone doubts the cause and its success. “You need to stay grounded and work for your own beliefs. But when your family believes in your dream and nurtures it as theirs, half the job is done,” she says. Throughout her journey, her father has been a guiding light. “I have seen him changing his perceptions, earlier he regarded it as my momentary musing, and now he is the one telling me to go grab the available opportunity,” she adds happily. My father has never held me or my sister back and left no stone unturned to foster our individualities.
My message to every father would be to never incapacitate their daughters by disregarding their ambitions
We asked how she felt about the society’s perception of ambitious women, and she said, “They are false perceptions that have been manifested in a wrong way. The way these things are looked at are surely changing, and it is overwhelming to observe that my team and I, are able to be a part of this change. It feels greater because it goes with our idea of changing the mind-sets. The ultimate goal remains to bring about change and awareness through our efforts, so people begin to see things differently, not just on the field of education, but in every facet of their lives.”
While Smriti is very passionate about her work, she feels that a start-up takes a lot of sacrifices. She has worked at a stretch for hours ultimately affecting her sleep pattern and even health. The work has also limited her ability to give proper time to her family. “But in the end, it will be worth the sleepless nights,” she says. A big challenge at work is establishing connect with the common people and making them believe in the ideology.
Every obstacle in the journey comes across as an opportunity to grow
As an advice to future womenpreneurs, she says, “our society will believe in us only when we have faith in ourselves. We need to put the society on mute, for once. Take a leap of faith and identify our mission. Do not be defeated!”
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