Fellows in cohort 2019
I moved to the crowded city of Kathmandu from Gulmi for higher education. It was difficult for me to adjust to this new environment. Everything I saw influenced me to become one, however, with a focused mindset I dreamed of becoming a doctor. With a strong desire to this dream, I took Biology during my higher secondary school. But due to my financial condition, I was unable to continue my desired subject to later get into MBBS. Instead, I chose Biotechnology. After all the hardship for two years, I was able to top at Biology at St. Xaviers’ College. I was also selected as a Senior Prefect, the equivalent of Student In-charge at KU boys hostel. It was all possible due to my presentation, communication and interpersonal skills developed in my leadership journey over the years. Through my positive experiences, I have realized the importance of quality education in all schools including government schools. However, seeing the huge gap between public and private schools, I could not ju…
Originally from Nijghad, I was born and raised in Kathmandu. I am a fun loving person. I am grateful that I have always had supportive teachers who encouraged me and helped me boost my confidence. It was one of the reasons I loved being in school. The support from my teachers helped me develop leadership skills from my school days. I was voted the school captain when I was in grade 9. I have already worked as a primary school teacher for two years and also worked as a Program Coordinator for underprivileged children as well. With four years of experience with children, I have developed a set of academic and technical skills that I can use to help my students in the future. One of my friends, Gopal Thapa, suggested me to apply for TFN as he knew that the Fellowship could be my next path of leadership leveraging on teaching and school support experiences I have had over the years.
I was born and brought up in Kathmandu. As a kid, I was timid and barely talked to new people. Although I was shy, I had a big dream of becoming a lawyer. I liked how lawyers argued in movies, and the best part was when the victims would get justice. I wanted to do something to help people in need. Singlehandedly, I was able to begin a campaign called ‘Wall of Kindness’ where homeless kids could come and get their choice of clothes – this I consider to be the biggest achievement in my life. My parents used to get continuously criticised for having a single child and that too a girl. But they fought for me and came out of the joint family only for my better future. I realised how hard life is when I moved to India for my further studies. I had to go to unknown cities for internships, find a roof, manage everyday life and live alone. I had my parents to support me, but one thing that bothered me was the thought of many others who were living a life harder than mine. I joined TF…
While I initially dreamt of being a doctor and serving the society, my idea of the means to serving the society has changed over time. I now want to work for children as a teacher as I know how lack of information and knowledge can affect the goals we set in our lives and the chances of our achieving them. I see myself a kind-hearted, honest and social person. For me, happiness is to succeed at work and make my family feel proud. My hobbies are walking in the morning in the garden, reading and writing, music, children, and travelling to new and different places. I have worked as a Social Mobilizer in the past and served in different community level programs. While working for one organization, I had to give awareness classes to girls in rural Terai. It was about the importance of education, but there were very few students who used to attend school. I went and did counselling with the parents and tried my best to bring the girls to school. It was very difficult to convince them…
I was born in Biratnagar but I spent most of my time in Kerala, India two thousand kilometres away from my hometown where I completed my schooling. I vividly remember gazing up at an aircraft in the sky and wanting to be a pilot during my childhood. Apart from that, I remember wanting to voluntarily help people in difficult situations. When I returned to Nepal and saw students walking hours and hours just to reach their school, it kept me thinking of why the society is so unequally distributed. Finding social injustice in our community has always been disturbing to me as I find it the opposite of what we used to read in school textbooks. I take education to be the highest source of wealth which I have accumulated throughout my life. I want to share this learning with the community and bridge the gap of education inequality as a way of fighting injustice. Through TFN, I want to complete my two-years Fellowship and be the change we seek to see in our country. I want to leave a…
My parents used to own a small shop in our hometown. I used to help them as I enjoyed dealing with customers and counting money as a kid. That could have been a guiding factor to becoming a banker or businesswomen. I used to stand first in most of my exams during my schooling. After completing SEE exams, I choose Management as my major for high school. Along with academics, I have always been passionate about working for a social cause. I have volunteered in social organizations like AISEC and helped them raise funds during my college days. I have also served as a member of Student Welfare Council for 2 years. Working with different social organizations, I developed my interpersonal skills, which I believe will prove necessary while living and working in any new community. The first time I saw the statement, “What if your first job is changing the nation?” on Facebook, I considered it as a call from Teach For Nepal. The stories of people inspire me. I love hearing stories. I also …
I am the youngest member in my family. My parents sent me to the best school they could afford. But as a kid I never liked going to school. The reason being my teachers. They used to praise only those students who came first or second in class. Although I was an average student, I used to complete my assignments on time and participated in various co-curricular activities. Volunteering in various organizations has helped me grow as a leader. I developed leadership skills when I was appointed class representative in college. I felt satisfied while helping others and I was learning new skills at the same time. I used to work in an orphanage and that is when I got a chance to get connected with underprivileged kids. There I realized that if given equal opportunity and a platform those kids could actually work as leaders in the community. While all of this was happening, I was in touch with one of the TFN Alumni, then a Fellow, whom I had seen working for the community. I was att…
I was born and raised in a typical Newari family in Kathmandu. I am tenacious, thoughtful and imaginative in nature. I did not have a solid ambition as a kid. However, as I grew up, in the face of sudden resource limitations in the family, I pushed myself frequently to help my family by working multiple shifts of jobs. Beyond my jobs, I also served at Leo Club of Kathmandu Sukunda as a Joint Secretary. My long term interests now are in software project management and in rural development. These areas require effective leadership skills like great communication and interpersonal skills, calm and positive attitude, problem solving ability, team and resource management, negotiation skills, social skills and a broad mindset. When I saw a post of Teach for Nepal with hashtag #Changebeginsinclassroom, I decided that I had to join this Fellowship for myself, for the students, and for the country as well as my own kins. If I could continuously learn, develop myself and understand diverse …
Taking you back to my childhood, I was born in Chhauni and brought up in Dallu, Kathmandu from where we could see hills and also feel the fresh air. Perhaps because of where I grew up, I have grown to love peaceful environments and strolling around in the city. I belong to a middle class family with normal expectations, a big dream, a fear to lose what we have, to have more and to live normally. Our definition of normal is to have our own home, probably some land, good job, and to get married around 25 years of age. While this is about just where I am from, I chose TFN because I wanted to break out of my cocoon. Although I did well until my +2, I struggled during my early years in college. However, with persistence, I picked myself up. In my final year, I got selected to become a Class Representative (CR) and stood as a near topper. However I have never been awarded, never received a scholarship and always been tagged as an average. Neither my family background is poor to be menti…
I am thankful to my aunt for always encouraging me to pursue higher education. After SLC, I was mentally prepared to quit studies and get into earning money. I thought that money was important because I had seen my father and neighbors leaving the country in search labour jobs in the foreign land. Seeing all this, I certainly wanted to earn as soon as I complete my schooling. I was always an average student from my childhood. Initially, my teachers did not believe that I would pass in any of my exams. As a result, I failed terribly in Physics. I asked for help from my friends at school, and during their free time, they used to help me with their notes. After that day, I have never failed in any exam. I started securing positions among top ten positions in the class. I have since realised the need for proper guidance among students in school. I didn’t know anything about TFN at the beginning. But learning that TFN works to improve public schools, I decided I wanted to contribu…