About The Founder

Vandana - CEO

Vandana is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College, with a degree in Economics. As part of her undergraduate studies, she spent a year at the London School of Economics. The initial years of her career were spent at Citizen Schools, a Boston-based non-profit organization dedicated to changing the life trajectory of underprivileged urban children in the United States. She joined Akanksha in 2006, initially serving on the team that created a blueprint for Teach for India, later moving on to manage the Beyond School department serving all adolescent children of Akanksha. In 2007, she became the Director of Akanksha’s School Project, launched to create a network of high-performing schools within the government system. She took over as CEO in January of 2010. In 2012, Vandana was honored by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader. In 2014 she successfully completed two Executive Show More

Summary

The Akanksha Foundation is a non-profit organisation with a mission to provide children from low-income communities with a high-quality education, enabling them to maximize their potential and transform their lives. Akanksha works in the field of education, initiating school reform through The School Project, and providing a supplemental education through the Akanksha centers.
Currently, Akanksha reaches out to over 6500 children through two models: the after-school or center model and the School Project.
Akanksha has 3 centers and 21 schools in Mumbai and Pune.
The School Project is a venture to open high-quality schools serving children from low-income communities in Mumbai and Pune. These schools are in partnership with local municipalities, with the vision of creaing small clusters of model schools in these cities that can be used to impact the mainstream education system.
Through the centers, a commitment is made to support each child by providing a strong educational foundation, good time, self-esteem and values, and to help them plan how they can earn a steady livelihood as a step towards improving their standard of living.
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Awards & Recognition

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