Shaheen Mistri (born 16 March 1971) is an Indian social activist and educator known as the founder of

Akanksha Foundation The Akanksha Foundation founded by Shaheen Mistri is a non-profit organization in India, which works with children from low-income communities. The foundation works primarily in the field of education, through its "School Project" model. Akan ...

, and social Activist,an Indian non-profit educational initiative in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

and

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

, Occupation in CEO of

Teach For India Teach For India (TFI) is a non-profit founded by Shaheen Mistri in 2009. It is a part of the Teach For All network. Teach For India runs a two-year Fellowship and supports an Alumni movement. The Fellowship recruits college graduates and worki ...

since 2008. Books Redrawing india, The Teach For India story, Miss Muglie Goes to Mumbai.

Early life

Shaheen Mistri was born on 16 march, 1971 in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, in She grew up in 5 different countries as she moved countries with her father, a senior banker with

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...

. At the age of eighteen she return to Mumbai keen to learn more about the city and its slums, when she decided to enroll at the University of Mumbai. Shaheen had always heard about inequalities in India’s education system, but what she saw shocked her. She graduated with a BA degree in Sociology from St. Xavier's College,

University of Mumbai The University of Mumbai is a collegiate university, collegiate, State university (India), state-owned, Public university, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the un ...

and later obtained a MA from the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

. Shaheen has been an Ashoka Fellow, a Global Leader for Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum, and an Asia Society 21 Leader. Shaheen is the author of the book, Re-drawing India.

Career

Shaheen Mistri, as a young college student, walked into the

slums and expressed her desire to teach the less privileged children who roamed the streets. Shaheen founded the first Akanksha Center in 1989, enrolling 15 children and employing college friends as volunteers. It eventually evolved into the Akanksha Foundation, a non-profit education project that provided after-school tutoring to children from low-income. Today, Akanksha reaches out to over 6500 children through its School Project Model. The centers and schools are in Mumbai and Pune. Teachers teach children using an innovative methodology, which has won the foundation international honors. In the summer of 2008, Shaheen founded Teach For India, with an audacious vision of providing an excellent education to all children across India through building a pipeline of leaders committed to ending educational inequity in India. The Teach For India Fellowship enlists India's most promising college graduates and young professionals to spend two years teaching in low-income schools and attempt to bridge the educational gap in the country.

Board memberships

Shaheen serves on the boards of Akanksha Foundation and Simple Education Foundation and is an ex-member of the board of Design For Change, the Thermax Foundation, and Teach For All.

Published works

* '' Redrawing India: The Teach For India Story'' (2014)

Awards

* Ashoka Fellow (2001) * Global Leader for Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum (2002) * Asia Society 21 Leader (2006)

References

External links

Teach For India official siteAkanksha Foundation official siteMistri
at ISB {{DEFAULTSORT:Mistri, Shaheen Ashoka India Fellows Indian women activists Women educators from Maharashtra 21st-century Indian educational theorists University of Mumbai alumni Parsi people from Mumbai Living people 1969 births People from Mumbai Activists from Maharashtra Women writers from Maharashtra Educators from Maharashtra 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian non-fiction writers Indian social sciences writers 21st-century women educators