On the occasion of International Women’s Day, we bring you some of the most notable and distinguished women eduleaders from the education industry to share their incredible journey, insights, and experiences. Here are the excerpts from the interview
Vani Sastri
Co-Founder
Seed Academy, Chennai
Imparting gender-neutral education
At Seed Academy, we don’t discriminate between girls and boys in any way. Right from designing gender-neutral school uniforms, we ensure we provide equal opportunities to girls and boys. Students are encouraged to follow their passion and develop skills in their chosen areas of interest, whether it is sports, entrepreneurship, and the arts.
Students also see strong female role models in the school leadership team as well as in the teaching team. Exposing and encouraging our girls to entrepreneurship and STEM programs has also been an important effort at Seed Academy. For example, last year we partnered with organizations like Code Your Chances to run special coding classes for our girls. The year before that, one of our students won a Chennaiwide entrepreneurship competition conducted by Young Entrepreneurs Academy. Our aim is to empower every student at Seed Academy to achieve their dreams.
On women entrepreneurship
Women have certainly come a long way. I am glad to be a part of a generation where being a woman entrepreneur is much more commonplace. I do agree that the number of women entrepreneurs should be more. The only way to get there is for us to support each other.
For example, at SEED Playschools, we support women in their dreams to becoming entrepreneurs by helping them start their own SEED franchisees with special schemes. Our day care programs also support working women, enabling them to pursue their careers without worrying about childcare. I am confident that if each woman entrepreneur supports and mentor more women entrepreneurs, we will be invincible.
Creating a new-age school
I was 14 years old, when my mother, Dr. Jaya Sastri, started SEED Playschools. I helped run summer camps and afterschool programs, and was in awe of the impact the right kind of education could have on young children. I always wanted to be in the education sector in India, but also wanted to broaden my horizons. My experiences at Wharton Business School and as a consultant at McKinsey & Company allowed me to do that. I returned to Chennai in 2015 to start Seed Academy. My passion is to work with children to bring out their best. At Seed Academy, we are focusing on breaking stereotypes and creating a school that disrupts the age-old education system, ensuring that learning is authentic and child-centric.
