2015 College Scholarship Recipient Making an Impact

February 28, 2016

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Meet Nandita!

Nandita* is a 2015 Shadhika College Scholarship Recipient. During Shadhika’s January 2016 Donor Trip to India, we had the opportunity to speak with Nandita about her college experience this past year.

Nandita is the eldest daughter of her family; she has one younger sister who is in middle school. Nandita’s father works as a day laborer and her mother is a maid servant. Nandita’s family lives on less than three dollars a day.

Nandita’s mother made it a priority to get her daughters through high school, but due to a lack of funds for college, she made plans for Nandita to get married after graduating high school. Last year, Uddami (Shadhika’s partner organization in Kolkata) convinced Nandita’s parents to delay marriage and allow Nandita to go to college, all expenses funded by Shadhika’s College Scholarship Program.

Nandita is currently going to college to receive a Bachelor of Commerce degree. She told Shadhika that she is very much enjoying her college experience thus far and especially enjoys the freedom that goes along with managing her own schedule. She is admirably juggling a busy schedule of college courses in the mornings, teaching computer courses at Uddami in the afternoons, and helping her family with housework in the evenings.

Nandita told us that her family is very proud of her hard work and that she serves as a role model to her younger sister. Nandita is also a huge inspiration to the students she teaches at Uddami.

After college, Nandita wants to get a job at a bank. Nandita is hopeful that getting a college education will help her secure a job that will allow her to live a self-sustained life and also take care of her family.

During our recent visit with Nandita, a Shadhika donor asker her what advice she has to give to future college scholarship recipients. Nandita passionately answered, “Do not waste this opportunity. Fulfill what you set out to do.”

We want to thank Shadhika’s Donor Circle participants for supporting Shadhika’s College Scholarship Program and for giving even more girls like Nandita the opportunity to fulfill their potential this year.

*name changed for safety