First Mission: Mrs. AVN College in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India

 

We started our mission at a school called Mrs. AVN college. This college was specifically chosen to be the first school we supported because of the significant financial need of the students.  And for one special reason: my great grandfather on my mother's side was an English teacher for 30 years at this very college. 

When we asked the school principal about the students' financial situation at the College, we were surprised at how many were struggling to pay their school fees. Most kids were the children of farmers, fisherman and manual laborers. Many of these were single income households, with the fathers being the only earners. This harsh reality is not only seen in this school but in 90% of schools in Visakhapatnam.

This is the exact reason why Bright Futures was created- to give all these deserving kids the same chance that I was given.

I am no better than them and they are no better than me.

After meeting with nearly 60 kids we invited them to submit an application for support. We selected only 16 kids for interview, but this was still a lot given it was our first contribution as a Foundation. After interviewing them we decided to give a total of 13 kids scholarships. Our goal was to be able to help the most kids, so rather than giving full support to only a few students, we dispersed the funds we had to more students, covering 80-90 percent of their tuition. With more donations, we would be able to help more kids while also giving them larger scholarships.

 

	Abhishek Seepana - Inter first  Aspiring to be a doctor in a government hospital so that he can help people in similar situations. Even with his great marks he wasn't able to participate in his grade 11 exams because his father was ill.
Prasanna Geethika - Bsc first year  Aspiring to be a doctor. She placed 7th nationally in her EMSET exams but wasn't able to accept the offer because she didn't have enough to pay for boarding even though she was given a scholarship for her school fees.
	Syed Tanveer - Inter first (gr.11)  Aspiring to be an AI developer. Because of his love for education Tanveer used the prize money from his sports team so that he could continue to study.
Tajeswar Rao - BSc first year  Aspiring to go into software development. even while living away from his family because of health and financial issues, Tajeswar still found a way to study while staying at his sister's place which he doesn't even know is permanent.