eSpire’19
eSpire’19 – Celebrating the journey of change leaders
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
– Harriet Tubman
Every eSpire, we witness a growing army of dreamers; dreamers who believe they can change the world for better, and dreamers who devote their life to convert their dreams to reality. eSpire’19 was a celebratory event to further fuel the dreamers, the change leaders, the cohort’19 members. eSpire, thus, witnesses the famous quote by Tubman come alive as the event brims with ideas, dreams and stories of the journey.
The members of cohort 19 transcended geographies working with distinctive communities in diverse societal contexts, yet weaved together with a common goal of transforming education and making it accessible. They were fuelled with passion, dream, and a zeal to work onwards and upwards. After a year of the intensive program with EduMentum, it is important to celebrate the victory, that is the journey itself.
eSpire: a quick snapshot
EduMentum is a 3-year incubation program with an intense first year. The organizations spend a lot of time focusing on their program designs and organization building. At the end of the first year, they are ready to test their redefined program and scale it impact. As EduMentum believes these dreams are like germinating seeds in year 1. It is at this phase, that the change leaders face a lot of hurdles and challenges, mostly in terms of resources and opportunities. EduMentum supports them through these hurdles and helps them reach their full potential.
It is to celebrate the germination of these resilient seeds, we launched eSpire.
eSpire is a platform where all our incubatees get to share their respective journeys with a wider audience. They share the power of their ideas. “Spire” in Danish means budding and this evening marks the same for our cohort members. It is an evening of inspiration and celebration.
The first eSpire was conducted on June 29, 2018. You can read more about it here.
eSpire’19 – Commemorating Ideas
eSpire’19, or the second eSpire was conducted on 21st June, 2019. The event demonstrated how a single idea, when worked upon can lead to something extraordinary for the world. It was witnessed by the young change leaders and veterans in the ecosystem as they came together to work out synergies to propel further growth in the education realm.
It started with an address by our mentor Mr. Sanjay Purohit who explained how the idea behind EduMentum is not just an incubator, it is a driver of change to create a sustainable change and leadership to transform education.
It was followed by a panel discussion with three of our esteemed mentors – Ms. Daya Kori, Managing Director at Evive Health LLC’s India Software R&D center, Mr. K.L Mukesh, Venture Partner at Unitus Ventures, and Ms. Asha Thomas, Executive Director at SFPI Foundation. They discussed how the mentorship has taught them so much about perseverance and the undying drive of the change leaders. It made them question a lot of basic assumptions about the sector or geography and shone a light on the absolute importance of approaching the challenges with contextual solutions. They discussed the techniques they adopted when faced with setbacks and how it is important to never lose sight of the long-term plan. In the end, the panel concluded that the mentorship was a two-way process of learning for the mentors and the mentees alike.
Next, the event saw a voyage across the country through the lens of Cohort 19 members. These change leaders presented their focus areas in their respective geographies and communities. They shared their work in developing contextual solutions to overcome the educational barriers. All of them dream to bring about a systemic transformation in education with an aspiration to scale.
It was indeed inspiring to see the drive with which these change leaders constantly overcame the challenges and pushed themselves for betterment. The sheer impact created by the cohort was enormous.
By the end of the event, there was a mingling of the stakeholders, philanthropists, HNIs, industry experts and leaders, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the education field to forge new collaborations as the cohort members embark on their journey ahead.
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