K ash mi r E d u c ati o n In i ti a tive k.e.i. newsletter Fall Edition 2014 with post-flood update KEI has grown from 12 students in a pilot program in 2008 to around 500 scholars supported in 2014. the best education for the children of Kashmir 1: Our flagship program and beyond A report on our largest program (High School Scholarships), the changes being made, and our move towards supporting the full academic life-cycle of a student. We continue to improve our High School Scholarships Program, which supports 409 scholars at present. We have improved our selection process by modifying the ranking algorithm (for the nerds: moved from score-based to distance-based logic). The ideal candidate has highest merit and lowest family income. Merit and means are considered equally in a transparent objective process. We are also excited about additions to our program portfolio to more holistically support the academic lifecycle of students all the way from foundation-building high school to graduate programs: Non Financial Support Mentorship Program Experiential Opportunities Program Financial Support (Scholarships) High School Scholarship Program [HSSP] Transition Year Scholarship Program [TYSP] Post-graduate Scholarship Program [PGSP] Pre-doctoral Scholarship Program [PDSP] Financial Support (Sponsorships) Sponsor-1-Scholar Program, which in turn includes S1S- High School [S1S-HS] S1S-Transition Year [S1S-TY] S1S-Pre-doctoral Level [S1S-PD] Named Scholarship Program [in development] Fall 2014 - K.E.I. Newsletter Kashmir went thru its worst flooding in over 100 years in September 2014. Most of Srinagar and around 2000 villages were under water. Hundreds lost their lives. Financial loss is estimated at US$16 Billion. Our scholars are all safe but everyone is affected by the floods - the homes and family businesses of several scholars have suffered damage. The efforts needed to keep them focused on their education and development are ever more critical. After establishing our scholars’ wellbeing, we started a “Donate A Book Campaign” that elicited great response from people in Kashmir. Distribution of books and study material will begin soon in Srinagar, Badgam, Anantnag, and Kulgam. In parallel, we are designing programs specifically for the situation created by the floods. Ideas in consideration include: Adopt A School Help recover from flood damage and develop a model institution. Relaxed Scholarship Criteria Introduce temporary quota for students severly affected by the floods. 1 2: Scaling mentoring In addition to financial support, we are increasingly focusing on deeper engagement with our scholars. The growing mentorship program is a major part of this initiative. Our mentorship pilot started in Nov 2012 with the realization that guidance is as important as financial support for helping our scholars realize their potential. A need-finding survey validated our impression. 16 scholars were selected based on levels of mentorship needed. We got a diverse group of boys and girls from different districts and grades. The pilot’s success led us to launch a full-fledged program. Our evaluation showed that both mentees and mentors benefited. Scholars got to learn from people from all walks of life and were eager to interact with their mentors (typically once a week). The mentors, volunteers from USA, UK and Kashmir, were thoroughly screened and matched to mentees based on profiles and preferences. We facilitate interaction at mutually agreed times. Modes of interaction are diverse - Skype or other video calling, text chat, in-person meetings, and phone calls. The program has grown to 44 mentormentee pairs. We intend to scale up so that within a year or so, all KEI scholars are matched with a mentor. This growth will be in sync with a major push in volunteer recruitment in 2014-15. In this issue Stories of three KEI scholars QUICK FACTS 3: We do a lot more than high school scholarships KEI engages in a number of activities besides providing High School Scholarships; experiential workshops - mentoring - support for higher studies - sponsorships Experiential Workshops: Give students hands on experience with journalism, videography, fine arts, environment and conservation, and other areas of their interest. Scholarships beyond High School: Transition Year Scholarships (TYS): Help existing scholars transition from high school to undergraduate studies. Post Graduate Scholarships (PGS): Support postgraduate scholars enrolled in different institutions in Kashmir. Pre-doctoral Scholarships (PDS): Assist scholars interested in pursuing graduate 2 studies (MS/PHD) in USA. Sponsorships for multiple levels: These include the in-design Donor Named Scholarships and the Sponsor1-Scholar (S1S) programs. S1S evolved from Sponsor-1-Child (S1C) following the success of S1C where donors are matched to and follow the progress of individual students. Donor interest in sponsoring scholars at other levels led us to grow to three components: S1S-HS (high school level), S1S-TYS (transition year level) and S1SPDS (pre-doctoral Level). • Around 500 scholars supported. • Need to raise $205,000 in 2014, a task made more challenging by the Kashmiri community being focused on raising funds for flood relief this year. • First corporate match established. • 26% of total donations raised online now. Campaigns on Facebook, Amazon Smile, Google search & One Today. • KEI HIgh School Scholarships Program (HSSP) supports 409 scholars; Sponsor 1 Child is now Sponsor 1 Scholar (S1S). Supports 25 students; Post Graduate Scholarships (PGS) support 18 scholars; Transition Year Scholarships (TYS) support 11 students with more to be added soon. • 6 KEI Scholars among top 20 in 2013 10th grade exams. 2014 exams delayed. • Based on donor feedback, a Named Scholarship pilot will be launched soon where donors can name scholarships in honour of their loved ones. _____________________ KEI USA: 113 West Plain Street, Wayland, MA 01778, USA KEI kashmir: Lily House, Nigeen, Hazratbal, Srinagar, J&K WEB: kashmirei.org FB: facebook.com/kashmirei.org EMAIL: [email protected] Kashmir Education Initiative (KEI), a non-profit organization registered both in USA and India with 501(c) (3) tax-exempt status in the USA, is a non-political and non-religious organization focused on enabling Kashmiri students to achieve excellence through quality education. Fall 2014 - K.E.I. Newsletter Art shared by KEI scholars on our facebook page: https://facebook.com/kashmirei.org SANA SHEIKH* lives in Bemina. She and her sister have both been KEI scholars. We have been engaged with Sana since she was in 6th grade. In her words “I would never have been able to attend a good private school if it was not for KEI’s support”. This year, after passing 10th grade, Sana heard about the United World Colleges in one of KEI’s interactive sessions with scholars. KEI provided mentoring and support throughout the application process and Sana got admission in the prestigious IB program with full scholarship. Sana and her family see this as a once in a lifetime opportunity. Sana’s dream is to work in the public sector and help society. She is interested in the efforts for conservation of the Dal Lake in Kashmir and helping students pursue their dreams. She feels inspired by the impact KEI’s efforts have had on her life, and wants to give back. MEHVISH NAAZ* was supported by KEI since she was in 11th grade. When KEI conducted a workshop on journalism and videography with the 1947 Partition Archive in Srinagar, Mehvish was excited to be a part of it. Though Mehvish was busy with her exams, she was eager to learn about a period in history that she had just heard about in passing. The workshop introduced her to experts in the field and Mehvish enjoyed learning from them. After the workshop, Mehvish became a fan of videography and interviewing, and started collecting stories on her own. Using equipment provided by KEI, 4. Stories of three KEI scholars Glimpses from the lives of three KEI scholars * name changed she made videos (interviews of people narrating their life experiences) for the 1947 Partition Archive and was recognized as an Oral Citizen Historian. Her interviews are now part of the archive. Mehvish was interviewed and her story published in the newsmagazine The Week. At present, Mehvish is studying for her B.Tech in Computer Science. MOHSIN RESHI* on his experience with the KEI mentorship program: “The mentorship programme that was launched by KEI was a well-timed good idea. It was useful for scholars who were in need of guidance, who were trying to find a way. So, mentors were set up for the selected scholars including me. As my career interest and obsession (as I may call it) is Software Engineering, a mentor familiar with area, Samir Malik, was set up for me. We communicated every Sunday and had a great time chatting. I talked about my career interests and he gave me some good tips and useful advice. For example, he directed me to a website where I would learn coding and stuff. That proved a lot worthy. He was very friendly on his part and respected my opinions. We even shared things beyond my career interests and often talked about things such as our cities. He encouraged me and that was great. Mentoring is a valuable resource for students seeking guidance.“ Fall 2014 - K.E.I. Newsletter 3 5: Fund-raising & outreach How we did last year and what we need to do by end of 2014. We are happy that last year we beat our fund-raising goal of $140,000 by raising $160,370. We expanded our base by conducting fund-raisers in 5 US states (CA, DC, MA, NJ & NY). We grew online donations (from our website) to 26% of total raised. Many donors setup monthly recurring donations. We are reaching out to a wide demographic online thru initiatives such as joining Google’s OneToday and Amazon’s smile.amazon.com. We participated in the annual ISNA conference (Washington DC) and promoted the KEI vision among thousands of attendees. Our community fund-raisers are opportunities to present our work and mission to the donor and volunteer base, and seek feedback. New Orleans, Buffalo, Atlanta, and Myrtle Beach are new candidates for community fund-raisers. We must raise $205,000 in 2014 to sustain our programs - a bigger challenge than usual in the aftermath of the floods. 6: A word from the president A note from Tahir Qazi (President, KEI USA) on our strategy, what our plans for the future are, and how we will execute on them. We will select 150 new scholars from 9th grade for each of the next 4 years reaching 600 scholars in HSSP by 2017. This batch will move to our transition year scholarships and eventually to graduate and post-graduate programs. This uniformity greatly simplifies planning for expenses and fund-raising. The other idea to emerge is scaling our mentorship program to include every scholar. With a couple of new program officers hired, mentorship will improve in quality and reach. The third idea that emerged is separating the strategic work of the boards of directors from daily execution of projects. This helps develop different competencies in the board and staff and will enable efficient scaling of our operations. We decided to clearly define ownership by functional areas rather than projects, so that directors develop deeper competencies. We will employ new marketing efforts that utilize digital as well as traditional fund-raising methodologies, and expect our donor mix to evolve as a result. KEI is poised for sustainable and deliberate growth in the next five years and has all the elements necessary to deliver high quality services to the scholar pool. With the passion, hard work, and focus of an excellent team of strong leaders and staff, KEI can become an example for non-profits that want to deliver fundamental, positive, and inclusive efforts in conflict-ridden areas like Kashmir. “The organization is poised for sustainable and deliberate growth in the next five years and has all the elements necessary to deliver high quality services to the scholar pool” We are lucky to have talented Directors with complementary skills and the ability to articulate different points of view. These are entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, business leaders, researchers, and scholars. Recently, the KEI leadership team met for a two day strategy session to analyze results from previous years and glean insights from collected data. With that context and a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats discussion, the team put together a five year strategy to scale the organization in areas of governance, financial planning, organizational design, and operational planning. One of the key ideas to emerge is creating a uniform pipeline of KEI scholars. 4 Get involved Consider helping the students of Kashmir by giving your time and/or money http://kashmirei.org/donate http://kashmirei.org/volunteer https://facebook.com/kashmirei.org Fall 2014 - K.E.I. Newsletter
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