1. what is alternative education for you? why is it important to you?

As human species, we are struggling. Struggling to stay together, listen to each others perspective, struggling to think - reflect and be sensitive.

wars - social media addiction - conflicts in relationship with family - community and nature I feel alternative education is important to me because the traditional education system is just increasing the struggles, moreover adding fuel to this struggle.

can we build the environment with vision to develop curious, sensitive, well adjusted, happy human beings ? For me, alternative education is not about learning new skills or subjects. Those things are part of it but not the only thing.

Alternative education is a space where we have genuine relationship with children. relationship like friend / sakha / mitra - there is no fear, no authority, relationship which is growth oriented.

Where…adult can share their interest, children join them, they learn together. They find resources together. sometime children share their ideas and all join.. where.. we ask fundamental questions like what is freedom ? what is happening inside us? how can we live together ? How our relationship with nature should be? where.. we stretch our self to explore our self from the core.. where we bring different exposures and flavors…

for me alternative education is that betweenness of children and sakha, sakha and sakha, children and peers..

2. What assets/skills/interests/knowledge would you bring to the position?

• my journey as self directed learner. (I can share how to make portfolio, how to work on projects, how to find mentors, how to find internship)
• my passion for theatre, creative writing (nature writing, poetry) , design & technology (product design, website design), nature based projects, philosophy, walking - yatra
• my ability to mentor / facilitate children for their passion projects, connect with different resource people and org. to take it forward.
• I can do first principal thinking / ask fundamental questions which might help to create larger vision or daily practices

3. What are your personal positives and negatives?

Positives :

• I have so many creative ideas and passion to work with children
• I can collaborate with diverse type of people
• I take ownership of space / project
• I am curious, agile and I feel excited to learn new things/skills or implement new ideas

Negatives :

• I feel tempted to visit different places / events / people / doing other projects apart from current work. I feel that is my negative point but I am working on it
• some times I seek attention, don’t listen or give lead to someone else, my identity/self worth is very much associated with work I do. so if work is not fulfilling for me, it is difficult to be happy. This is recent realization and I have started working to overcome this.

4. What makes you a strong candidate for the position?

• I love being with children
• I have 10years of experience working with children
• my intention to own the space and work longterm