Vidya Poshak: Filling the Gaps for Disadvantaged College Students

About two months ago I was in a room of about two dozen recent college graduates, most twenty or twenty-one years old. All came from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, most were from villages and had studied in rural colleges, many were not simply first generation college graduates, but were first generation literate. The task I assigned them was simple: stand up one by one and tell us something about yourself. I figured it couldn’t take more than fifteen minutes.

Instead it took a full morning. There was a lot of hesitation, stuttering, prompting, inaudible muttering, staring at the ground, and several young women that were clearly terrified at the thought of standing up in front of others. Rather surprised by what I saw, I asked for a show of hands of who had ever made a presentation in public before. Not a hand went up. Out of curiosity I asked how many have ever done a group project. Nothing.  In short these degree holders have almost never, in their fifteen years of formal education, taken an active, participatory role in learning. No wonder they were terrified to stand up and say their name.

This is precisely the problem that the NGO Vidya Poshak is trying to tackle. Vidya Poshak was started in 2001 by a group of college professors to give scholarships to disadvantaged students from the eleventh grade through the completion of their degree. (In India, government funded education exists through the tenth grade, eleventh and twelfth grades are considered college-preparatory and must be paid for.) The scholarship program is unique in several respects: Vidya Poshak does not rely solely on the scores students achieve in their school exams, but rather administers their own “Nurture Merit Test.” They don’t rely on government issued paperwork to assess poverty, but rather pay a house visit to every single applicant to see if they are truly in need. But over time Vidya Poshak realized that just paying tuition is not enough. They added the cost of bus passes and textbooks to the mix, and started conducting various weekend training programs in English, soft skills and career guidance.

These training programs evolved in two directions. On the one hand, Vidya Poshak now has eight day residential camps for all of their scholarship students, to build their self-confidence, English and soft skills. On the other, Vidya Poshak has started a Graduate Finishing School that through an intensive three month program empowers underprivileged recent college graduates with the skills they need (English, computer skills, soft skills, career guidance) to find meaningful employment. And now VP has expanded its reach and began the CHANGE Ambassador Program – a project to get college students involved in social activism.

Two months later, when I visited the same students for the second time, the change was jaw dropping. After eight weeks at Graduate Finishing School, the very students that had refused to meet my eye strode up to me boldly and asked me about my journey. The previously timid young women were repeatedly the first to raise their hands in class. And all felt confident in their ability to find a job, to support their families and gain what they referred to again and again as “respect in society.” Perhaps that is a true example of “sustainable development.”