About the Dream Project Fellowship
The Dream Project Fellowship, a nine-month management fellowship programme, is an opportunity for professionals with excellent leadership skills to work with Akshaya Patra and create an impact in the lives of our beneficiaries.
The fellowship will be an integral part of Akshaya Patra’s flagship initiative, “Giving Every Dream a Chance”. The initiative was launched in 2016, featuring three beneficiaries. They were given necessary mentorship and training through professionals in the field of their choice. Encouraged by the success of the pilot, the initiative has scaled up to provide training and mentorship to more than 300 children in the field of Dance, Theatre, Origami, Culinary and Football, with the support of other organizations and individual mentors. This year we intend to touch the lives of 5000+ beneficiaries across five states.
The Objectives of the Initiative
- Every beneficiary is given an exposure to extracurricular activities and an opportunity to find out his/her passion.
- To use arts and sports to draw students to school – better attendance
- To change their perception of education and generate their academic interest
- To help personality development and smooth out extreme behaviors like suppression or aggression
- To give beneficiaries to seek out alternative careers
- To encourage students to integrate art and education for a better educational experience
Key roles of a Fellow
The fellows will be part of the management and operations team to implement the initiative.
The Dream Project Fellows will be responsible for:
- Outreach: Souring mentors in the various fields individually or through academies.
- School Onboarding: Closely coordinate with our operations team to reach out to our beneficiary schools and get them onboard for the initiative
- Student Onboarding: Overlook the student sign ups, audition process, session scheduling and setting up of space.
- Monitoring: Conduct regular visits and monitor the sessions, mentor attendance and student attendance. Coordinate with the core team in creating and running the mentor club and various student clubs
- Problem Solving: Quick troubleshooting for on ground issues.
- Building Relationships: Act as the bridge between the mentors and schools. The fellow will need to build and maintain a strong rapport to earn the trust of the school authorities and get their full support for our initiative.
Key Responsibilities
- The fellow will be responsible to scout for renowned academies and source mentors (in the field of performing arts, sports and craft) for various trainings to be conducted in the schools.
- He/she will need to understand the requirements of the academies and map appropriate schools that meet the requirements for executing the Dream project.
- He/she will coordinate with the Headmaster/mistress as well as the mentors to set up a mutually convenient schedule and space for conducting the training programme in classrooms
- He/she will be responsible to conduct a baseline study to evaluate the project impact on the children post the completion of the fellowship
- Each individual will have the freedom to plan the best strategic approach for implementing the project on ground in the given market
- He/she will act as the bridge between the school and the academy.
- He/she will need to build and maintain a strong rapport to earn the trust of the school authorities and get their full support for our initiative.
- He/she will be responsible to troubleshoot when there is a hurdle in the flow of the sessions and the final showcase
- He/she will conduct regular visits and monitor the sessions, mentor attendance, and student attendance as well as coordinate with the core team in creating and running the Mentors' club and various student clubs
- He/she will also be responsible for social media posts and updates of the sessions.
- He/she will need to capture pictures and videos during the sessions.
- The fellow will be responsible for event management for the final showcase for each academy.
