Gotta catch ’em early
From the Founder’s desk
One of the eye-brow raising aspects about the Jitheshraj Scholarship for promising freshmen (JSPF) is the fact that it is aimed at first year undergraduate students. While it is a perfect tribute to our eponym, it does pose some questions upon execution:
“How can you expect so much from first year students? They have just started university”
True — our application process is demanding, to say the least. It requires first year students to learn to write essays, do a small project, and be able to go through an interview. For many of our applicants, it is the first ever scholarship they have applied for (90.1% of applicants, to be precise); the first essay they ever wrote; the first project they ever did; the first interview they appeared for.
But what we have to offer is most effective for students in the first year — an accelerated clarity of strengths and passion. We believe that the sooner Indian students break out of their blinders, look inwards and figure out their likes and wants, the faster they will be able to use that insight as a compass and utilize the opportunities available to them in college.
I specifically say Indian students because that is the ecosystem we at JSPF have good insight on, focus our efforts on, and are looking to impact. The options presented as the ‘future’ reduces dramatically for Indian students, sometimes as early as when they are in Class 8/9/10. This is true even for students who were raised to believe they can be anything they want to be. The choices they make are often a result of incomplete information, peer pressure, and financial anxiety. All of this, even if it gets them into a university, manifests itself as poor self-esteem, low motivation, under-utilized potential, and a quarter-life career crisis.
“So should you not be targeting middle and high school students? Isn’t it too late in college?”
Firstly, educational intervention at any stage should be welcome. It reflects our optimism on the current society, without the need to start from a blank slate. It is also a reflection of our belief in growth mindset — that the human capability to learn is eternal and the mindset that “they can learn” is highly productive.
Secondly, intervention at school vs university have their own pros and cons. School is often a stressful time for students and they might feel like this is yet another thing they need to do to excel. They can also not understand the full extent of the options available to them. Buy-in from parents of school students can be difficult as they don’t want the students to feel “distracted”. There are ways to combat these issues but that is not where our strength as an organisation lies. As an organisation founded by people who met at university, we understand the university ecosystem much better than we do a schooling ecosystem. We are already adept at handling the heterogeneity of a collegiate audience and we know the resources at our disposal in this system.
Enabling exploration in college is not a new idea. US undergraduate education system is designed to include this exploration as a part of their framework — which is why students take their first year to pick their choice of classes and choose a major. And JSPF has been serving as a good, low-cost alternative for that structure. Our application process is designed to nudge students to explore fields and interests they might not have been inclined towards otherwise. And even if they don’t come out of the process with a definite “I am interested in X”, they come out with:
- A list of “I am not interested in A, B, C..” enabling a process of elimination
- A list of “I enjoy this and am curious to see where it takes me”
- A mental model of how they can continue this exploration in the years to come
- Confidence that they can take on any new challenge ahead
“Can you instead do this in the second/third/fourth year of college?”
We think it’s
(1) not optimal — the impression students make of themselves and the habits they form in their first year of college often lasts till the end of college. The JSPF process is so involved that it sets the tone for how the rest of their college life plays out.
(2) more difficult logistically. From second year onwards, the majority of students get involved in student clubs, internships, and other activities. Whereas, in their first year, they have the space and time that our process requires — if they choose to utilize them accordingly.
The last 4 years have taught us that while students find the JSPF process intimidating and demanding, they come out on the other end transformed, and with an elevated sense of clarity and confidence. How we get our students past the ephemeral feeling of “Can I really do this?” is a problem we are excited to solve.
About the author: Sivaranjani Subramanian is the Founder and Executive Director of the Jitheshraj Scholarship for promising freshmen. She is a graduate of King’s College London and NIT Trichy and is currently based out of London, UK. She is also a senior software engineer at Thoughtworks and is excited about the prospect of interdisciplinary solution building for society’s hard problems.
Also, we are recruiting! Find out more and fill our form before May 28, 2022 using this hyperlink
