My name is Samiksha Adhikari. I was born in Hetauda, and moved to Kathmandu when I was 3 years old. I have been living here since then. My overall experience as a student was positive. Learning was always fun, and I was able to spend time with my friends. I was always allowed to make my own decisions, which meant I went through both good and bad phases. But looking back, I think who I have become today – able to stand proud despite some failures, and confident in the love I have from my familiy, friends and my precious students – is my greatest accomplishment till date. Teaching has always been a passion for me, and I wanted to take part in a challenging mission. I always wanted to do something for my people, for my society and for my country. Seeing the Fellowship vacancy was the first step to fulfilling these desires. I never had any second thoughts. I used to think of it as a teaching job, but now I can say it is more about grooming yourself and transforming other people’s …

One of my favourite books says, “We can’t choose where we come from but we can choose where we go from there,” but I believe that one’s background both informs and moulds a person. Mine certainly did. I was born in a small town in Meghalaya, India but my parents’ decision to provide me with better education and exposure took me to a lot of places around India. My first stop was Rockvale Academy at Kalimpong. The hostel was initially a struggle, since I was so young, but my teachers, especially the late D.B.Chettri, provided me with care and support. School became my second home, and the hostel taught me to take care of myself and find a family wherever I went. My learning continued beyond the walls of educational institutions. My experience while running a restaurant, and then venturing into a different field – professional karaoke jockey – provided some of the learning that I cherish the most. I heard a lot about Teach For India during college and knew about the kind of dedicat…

I grew up attending both private and public schools. I have first hand experience when it comes to the issue of educational inequality between public and private schools. One year in public school, I secured the highest percentage in my class but had to repeat a year when I transferred to a private school because of my poor English. I am proud of my educational attainment. I belong to a lower middle class family and my parents had no formal education. Given my parents’ poor economic abilities, it was very difficult to get to where I am now, academically. I almost dropped out of school and worked a local job like my brothers, but I decided to continue with my education. I feel happy that I will have completed my Bachelor’s degree very soon. I came to know about Teach For Nepal from my school, Jyotidaya Cooperative Secondary School. I was certain that I wanted to be a part of this movement. Before finding out about Teach For Nepal, I felt like I was a frog trapped inside a well. …

I was born and brought up in Kathmandu, where I had a great childhood. I completed my early schooling from an English medium school which was great. In many ways I’d say that I am a normal student, but I am proud that even with some difficulties I was able to be successful in the subjects I chose. I first came across Teach For Nepal when I was job hunting, through merojob.com. I knew next to nothing about TFN initially, but when I was called for the first interview I went through the website to learn more about Teach For Nepal. This inspired me, and made me more interested in the organization. My desire to be a part of the movement grew stronger than ever. Once I was selected, and I’d attended the interaction programs TFN holds for accepted fellows, I felt blessed and very fortunate that I had been chosen for this job. I feel this is the decision that will write a new road map to my life. I am excited to face all the challenges before me as I believe they will make me a new, refine…

I did my schooling from Chitwan English Secondary Boarding Schooland Shanti Academy Higher School. While in school, I was selected as one of two students to represent Nepal in the Finnish Red Cross Big Pepa program, Finland. In college, I was a faculty topper and second in the district. Later, I went on to pursue my undergraduate at Asian University for Women, Bangladesh, on a full scholarship. I was a Cherie Blair Fellow and also a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow. During my undergraduate, I had an opportunity to attend a summer program at Stanford University. Thus, I consider myself among the few privileged students who had a chance to have excellent educational opportunities. A few months before my graduation, I saw a post about Teach For Nepal on Facebook. I opened the page and realized it was exactly what I wanted to do. I strongly believed in the core purpose of the movement. I applied for the fellowship and after a rigorous assessment process, I was accepted. That moment for me…

I was born in Baglung Districtin Dhaulagiri. I migrated to Chandigarh, India at the age of 4, lived there for 8 years, and then moved with my family to Kalayanpur, Chitwan. I was lucky enough to be educated in well facilitated schools and colleges. I was a consistent student throughout my education, but I realized I was a tactile learner, and that was not something my schooling catered to. Up to this point of my life, I am proud of having completed my undergraduate in Physics inspite of having encountered a lot of challenges after moving to Kathmandu on my own. There were many tough days, which made me a better and confident person, indeed. I came to know about Teach ForNepal about two years ago, from a restaurant in Durbar Marg. My eyes were attracted to this question: “What if your first job was changing the nation?” My first reaction was –Is this serious? And then– Will I get this chance? And finally – Who is making this crazy call?! I noted down the website of TFN. At that p…

I grew up in a poor and barely literate family in an under developed village. Initially, I attended a government school with poor infrastructure and low educational standards. I was fortunate that my brother and my family encouraged me to come to Kathmandu for my education. I came to Kathmandu when I was almost 10. At that time I couldn’t even speak in Nepali and school was a huge challenge as I was finding it hard to even communicate. I was placed in the hostel of Kathmandu International School for two years. I worked really hard to learn both English and Nepali. After this time, I was able to speak and write both languages. I joined Rato Bangala School, an institution at the other end of the spectrum from my first educational experiences, where I remained through my A-levels. I would say that I had a very diverse educational experience as I studied in the worst as well as the best schools of Nepal. Becoming a Teach For Nepal Fellow is the greatest achievement of my life so far. I…

I was born in Ombahal, a small place hidden between the alleys of Patan. I am the second child in my family with an elder sister and a younger brother. I passed my SLC from Lalitpur Madhyamik Vidhyala in Mahalaxmisthan, Lalitpur and completed my higher level education from United Academy. I got my bachelor’s degree in business studies from Nepal Commerce Campus. In school, I asked and answered questions in every subject except math: math always bored me while science was the subject that I have always been interested in. My teachers were the reason I paid attention in classes. They guided me to be a good student; they were people I would always look up to. I remember one of my friends saying, “I appreciate you wanting to do social work but living in a village for two years? That would kill your social life.” I just laughed and didn’t reply because I knew what I had signed up for. I was confident about my decision to work for Teach For Nepal. The thing that made me nervous the mo…

I was born in Sonigama VDC of Dhanusha district, and grew up in the same village. I also attended primary school in Sonigama, and later moved to Janakpur to complete my secondary and higher secondary education. I moved to India for my higher studies, where I completed my B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from NIT Jalandhar. If I have to describe my school life in one word, I would say it was “prodigious”. Sometimes I feel it passed by too quickly. Academically, I was one of the brightest students in my class, and I was involved in almost every activity that took place in school. This made my school days very memorable. I came to know about Teach For Nepal through Facebook. I was curious about what this really was and how it would work. Would there be enough people interested in teaching in villages? This was my biggest doubt when I first came to know about TFN. I left my job in India and came to Nepal thinking I would do something for Nepal. That was when I ca…

“Taan ke bahulais?”, was one of the many reactions I got when I told people that I was joining TFN. Though I had an inkling of the reactions I might get, I wasn’t prepared for the avalanche of negative feedback that came my way. I was pushed to the point where I felt maybe I was being naively idealistic, or even just plain stupid. Most people had genuine concerns–why go and live in a village? Why work for so little money? Why teach when so many other, “better” opportunities exist? What about my future plans? When I applied to Teach For Nepal, I had just returned home from working in Mauritius as a senior subeditor for a newspaper. I’d previously worked at ECS Magazine and TheHimalayan Times, and everyone was telling me I could have got almost any job in a media house or I/NGO. And yes: if one were to take a practical trajectory of life, the above options would have been perfect choices – but they just did not appeal to me. I was looking for something ‘different’, but I wasn’t …