Here at Pune Learns, we’re extremely proud not only of our work over the years with young students, but also of our recently launched Empowered Communication Program, through which we work with adults. Our program focuses on equipping adults with English communication skills that they’d leverage in their professional life. Many of our mentees through this program are women, and in honor of international Women’s History Month, we wanted to hear from these women, and highlight their goals and inspirations. Read on for a summary of the insightful and aspirational answers we got from our students when we asked them about their professional and personal goals.
Pratiksha Bhosale
“My goal in life is to maintain a balance between my health, career, and personal relationships. Professionally, I want to become a banker, and achieve mental peace and satisfaction. Through Pune Learns, I want to practice and improve my English, and gain knowledge from my mentors.
Three women leaders who have inspired me are Rajmata Jijau, Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule, and Tyag Murti Ramabai Ambedkar. Rajmata Jijau was a founder of the Maratha empire and mother of Shivaji. Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule was the pioneer of women education in India. During British rule in India, she and her husband Mahatma Jyotiba Phule worked so much for girl education, and had a long term vision for education. They really did so much social work and faced so many challenges from society, but they never backed down. Mata Ramabai’s sacrifices contributed largely towards Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s work against casteism.
I have utmost respect and gratitude for all these women leaders, and they inspired me a lot.”
Sana Alam
“My goals from this mentorship program are to learn to speak English fluently and confidently, write outstanding stuff in English which will convince readers.
Women who I found inspiring are my aunt and grandma – they both went through many ups and downs in their life, and are still standing strong and ready to help others at any cost. They never make me feel alone or under confident. They have this miracle of solving my every problem. I really can’t think of my life without them and their inspiring words.”
Pradnya Bhosale
“While on my maternity break, I started thinking about doing something that is interesting to me. I’m very career oriented, and I wanted to start a Youtube channel introducing women entrepreneurs. Everyone on YouTube already is very established, but I would like to highlight women who don’t have much fame and recognition yet. That’s why I did a photography course, but then I realized I was interested in photography, and because of my maternity leave I realized that there’s a big space for women in this field. So I want to do kids’ photography because of this, and there aren’t many women in this field right now in my city.
For women who have inspired me, I recently went through the journey of Kiran Mazumdar (of BioConn company). She was a brilliant student from a middle class family. She wanted to become an engineer but she moved on to science. She did graduate in Biology, and whenever she went to companies for a job, they refused her for jobs because she was a woman (this was 40 years ago). She decided if someone isn’t willing to give me a job, she would create one herself. She started her company from her small garage, outside her home, and she gave an ad, and people were confused at first whether it was a real company, but then she proved them wrong. Society stereotypes are not accepting women as leaders, but modern day women like Richa Kar (founder of Zivame), and women from history like Ahilyabai Holkar and Captain Laxmi Sehgal have proven themselves as great leaders.”
We’re so excited to be concluding Women’s History Month with these posts from our students! They’ve introduced us to so many inspiring women, we’ve enjoyed reading about all of their journeys, and hope you will too!