“The best way to predict your future is to create it”, the quote that keeps me inspired irrespective of the task I take up.

I was born and brought up in an orthodox yet educated family. My father was a banker and my mom, a housewife. I admire them not as my parents alone, but the values they instilled in me and my sisters. I was a studious kid, actively engaged and occupied with my books, to the extent that my mom used to scold me for the time I spent with them. Little did I know, that I would take it up as my career.

I pursued Masters in Microbiology; dreaming of a career in Research & Development. But destiny was different. Life offered me a new path which I took up as a challenge. I started teaching Biology to students of grades 9 and 10 at one of the leading corporate schools. My personal self-taught approach in the field of education gave me a new insight into teaching and I decided that my profession would be linked with teaching and learning. I worked intensively on improving literacy skills in my students and demonstrated high growth in student learning outcomes.

I set up a new goal so that I can teach, conduct research within the classroom, and make a contribution to the improvement of education, and in the process accomplished a Bachelor’s degree in Education in 2014, after my younger daughter was born. In the due course, I worked with different publications and e-learning companies where I had an opportunity to interact and work with stellar people in the field of education.

Over the past fifteen years, my journey towards this goal has been direct at best. It has carried me through many schools and multiple states, presenting opportunities to work within every grade from kindergarten. Ideas such as integrating technology and education, developing curricula, lesson study model, and others provided the chance for me to focus on my goal.”

• Sumana Rani, Entrepreneur, Education Facilitator