The Circle India

✨This Daan Utsav, you can help India build its next generation of athletes through The Indian Sports Initiative✨ 🏅Every Indian street has a budding Olympian🏅 That is the bold vision of The Indian Sports Initiative (TISI), a Circle-Incubated after-school. TISI is committed to leveraging sports for both development and excellence, with a special focus on unconventional Olympic Sports. Through sports, TISI not only aims to cultivate athletic excellence but also contribute to the holistic development of individuals, communities, and the nation at large. 🔗Click here-https://lnkd.in/gCPX2Nvw to make a difference🔗 Vaishnavi Nudurumati | Dawny Johnson | The Indian Sports Initiative | #DaanUtsav

Daan Utsav Post #2 Saidevi Sanjeeviraja grew up in Rajapalayam, a town in Tamil Nadu near Srivilliputhur, home to the Grizzled Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary, a preserved forest south of the Palakkad Gap. She moved to Coimbatore to study finance and international business, and then to Bangalore, but her heart kept beating for nature. As a child, she loved nature walks—identifying different species of birds, insects, animals and trees, but observed that children in Bengaluru's government schools had so much of nature around them but the interest was not there. And a basic gap - being in four walled schools, and not being able to learn through nature, was leading to a severe lack of interest in studies, And this is how Thicket Tales was born. Today, Sai and her team of equally passionate biologists and nature enthusiasts conduct weekly sessions in government and affordable private schools, but not inside their schools. These sessions happen in the nearby parks, and middle schoolers complete assignments, solve treasure hunts, understand Bangalore's history, and build projects around civic awareness. And this is resulting in increased interest in studies, because their science and social science chapters are coming to life, and the relevance is leading to increased curiosity. And these children are being equipped to combat the problems they are going to inherit, climate change being a big one. This basic gap is being plugged for 500 students today, and can be taken to many more students tomorrow. And this costs only Rs. 2000 per student per year. Sai is looking to raise 10L to support her team's cost. And here's how you can help! If you are in Bangalore and would like to see a Thicket Tales classroom in action, do get in touch with Pragya If you work with a corporate firm in Bangalore, and would like an employee engagement activity at a neighborhood park, do get in touch with Pragya too! If you want to financially contribute, their fundraiser is in the comments. Read more at: https://lnkd.in/dhwvixAg Saidevi Sanjeeviraja Pragya Gaur Mrunali Sundar Vasavi Ballakkuraya Thicket Tales The Circle India

#DaanUtsav ✋🏼Imagine never having seen traffic lights—would a mandatory lesson about that help you if you'd never experienced one before? Until yesterday, our students hadn’t seen one. Eight children from the village finally left for an exposure trip, seeing traffic lights for the first time in their lives. This is the reality for most remote, hard-to-reach villages in India. And yet, we're not doing much to curate personalized learning experiences for children in the country. Why? Why can't learning be contextualized to meet the individual needs and realities of children? Why are we passionately holding onto a one-for-all approach? Why can't traffic lights be taught later at a stage in life when they get the opportunity to leave the village and see traffic lights, and understand traffic? Shouldn't education be a more present, fulfilling experience? At Khaangchu, we are committed to decentralizing decision-making in curating learning experiences suited to each learner's unique strengths and challenges. We need your support to make it a reality. Your contributions can help us create immersive experiences for Rongmei children, that are relevant to them- bridging the gap between their lived realities and the wider world. 🌍✨ You can help us grow by donating today! We need your support to transform education for the Rongmei children of Northeast India! Here's the link to the fundraiser - https://lnkd.in/dfdTw8hH Kabithui Rongmei The Circle India #alternativeeducation #educationforall #equityineducation

We’ve officially welcomed our third cohort of Entrepreneurs-in-Residence at The Circle. Our largest cohort to date, this incredible group will be launching schools and after school programs in Kishan Nagar, Mumbai, Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat, Kerala, Punjab, Hyderabad, Manipur, Ladakh, and Pune. This group of people have spent much of the last three months iterating their models before joining The Circle. They’ve worked through our intensive eight-week Sandbox pilot period. And they’re now fiercely committed to reinventing this thing we call school - so that it works better for kids who desperately need it to. We began this year’s cohort with an intensive personal leadership deep dive with the incredibly talented Tim Davis. We spent three days cultivating the habits and orientations to do the deeply transformative work for kids that lies ahead. It’s the realisation that this work starts with cultivating all that is within.  Stay tuned for all that this new group of Entrepreneurs will accomplish. It’ll be exciting. And we’re grateful to be partnering with them. Varun Khimani, Nandini Kochar, Vivek Kaushik, Rigzen Wangmo, Arunima Sengupta, Ananya Mukherjee, Harihar Menon, Harsh Kothari, Iqra Shaikh, Mukesh Digani, Sooraj S, Tarini Khurana, Vishnu Satish, Pooja Chopra, Manyata Malhotra, Aarshiya Chaudhry, The Circle India

🫶FROM THE GROUND!ARROWS OF HOPE! 🙌 Our athletes unleashing their inner Arjun! Behind every champion is a story of grit, dreams, and countless hours of hard work. We at The Indian Sports Initiative are about to unveil something that could change the game for our archers! 👀 Kudos to Dawny Johnson and our amazing athletes for creating this video! #GameChanger #BuildingChampions #Archers #Indiansport The Circle India B K Sethuram Reuben Pandian Sandeep Rai InnovatED Pooja Chopra Manyata Malhotra Mandar Kulkarni Prince Jebastin Samridhi Nair Ramabhadran Sundaram Venil Ali

We're #hiring at Sitara Akka. Sitara Champions Program, an intervention aimed at empowering students to become self-directed learners, has been in demand by schools, teachers and students across some tier 2, tier 3 and rural regions of Karnataka. We're looking for 2 Program Managers and 1 Head of Programs to build Sitara Akka with us. These roles are ideal for those in education / management / deep desire to create impact. Please connect me with anyone you know who you think would be a good fit. Read more and apply here - https://lnkd.in/gsTQ2aTJ The Circle India NSRCEL Reap Benefit

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Entrepreneur in Residence at The Circle India!

Daan Utsav Post #1 I AM HELPING BUILD THE NEXT GENERATION OF INDIAN ATHLETES. JOIN ME? I often wonder—what would it take for a country as vast and populous as India to truly dominate on the global stage of sports? With over a billion people, the potential is immense, but unlocking it requires more than just talent. It demands a system that can identify and nurture raw potential from the grassroots, giving children the opportunity to grow with world-class training and guidance. That’s exactly where The Indian Sports Initiative (TISI) comes in. During their Incubation at The Circle, I’ve had the privilege of seeing firsthand the incredible work that TISI is doing to revolutionize sports in India. They are on a mission to find young talent in underserved communities and provide them with rigorous, high-quality training and coaching. Their focus goes beyond skill development; they aim to instill values like discipline, teamwork, and resilience—qualities that define champions, both on and off the field. Through their programs, TISI is building a sustainable pipeline of athletes who can compete at the highest levels, regardless of their background. It’s about creating opportunities that prioritize potential over circumstance, giving every child the chance to succeed. Today TISI is working with 35 Archers in Pune who are getting competitively ready. TISI is looking for YOUR support to ensure all these athletes are able to unleash their inner Arjun and pave the way for sporting greatness! They have launched a crowdfunding campaign and are on a lookout for people like YOU who can donate and help them reach them sustain. Here’s the link: https://lnkd.in/dheAyu4A. Vaishnavi Nudurumati Dawny Johnson The Indian Sports Initiative The Circle India

#DaanUtsav I am often asked - 'Why You?' in Manipur. I've been asked numerous times, 'Why are you building an alternative school in Manipur? Here's my 'WHY': I believe that every child deserves an opportunity to access contextualized, relevant education regardless of background or circumstances - education that empowers the ‘self’. I was in Manipur, volunteering at a barely functional government school in a Rongmei village when the civil war broke out in 2023, and the state was indefinitely shut down. I witnessed the aftermath of violence. I saw children captivated by guns and bullets. I heard the community talk about their history, and their identity as Rongmei Nagas. And I saw children rot learning an essay on Diwali because ‘school’ demanded, while Manipur was burning. I stayed because I experienced the community. I believe in the power of decentralized agency in curating learning experiences that are relevant, I stayed because I believe in Khaangchu. We are reviving the traditional 'Khangchu' of the Rongmei Nagas across Rongmei villages in the Northeast. We envision a future where every Rongmei child in Northeast India transforms from being a passive recipient of change to an engaged and committed participant, driving lasting impact and fostering peace in the region. We call for your support in this demanding, yet beautiful journey to build Khaangchu. We invite organizations, foundations, and individuals who share our passion for education and community development to join us. Here's how you can help us at this stage: - Infrastructure ✨ We aim to continually enhance our learning environment with state-of-the-art resources. Contributions in the form of educational materials, technological tools, and infrastructure improvements are welcome. - Child well-being ✨ We invite child welfare organizations to collaborate with us in implementing robust child protection policies and training, and M&E programs. - Scholarships ✨ Financial constraints should never hinder a child's educational journey. We seek partnerships with organizations and donors to expand our scholarship programs to those in dire need. - Volunteering ✨ Bwaruangh Taodaizaeng is a beautiful village, you'd love to visit us. We are looking for individuals with subject matter expertise who'd be willing to spend time at Khaangchu, growing with our learners. You can also support us by contributing directly to our fundraiser. Here's the link: https://lnkd.in/dfdTw8hH Kabithui Rongmei The Circle India

Can a Scottish novel about a magical boy help children learn English? Can stories transform learning?           It was these questions that led Samridhi Nair, Circle’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence from the Cohort of 2023 to dream of building an after-school program called Step2Words in Pune. You can read more about Step2Words' Journey through this link- https://lnkd.in/dKDyXhj8! Step2Words | Samridhi Nair |