Young Leaders Collective

YOUNG LEADERS COLLECTIVE

AN INITIATIVE OF THE AKSHAYA PATRA FOUNDATION

"This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease." — Robert Kennedy.

Young Leaders Collective(YLC) is a year-long fellowship for exceptional individuals across sectors & aims to provide a platform to harness and augment the fellows’ skills while enabling Social Change. This fellowship will run concurrent to the existing vocations of the fellows. YLC will offer curated opportunities & formats for driven, young leaders to leverage their skills & network, beyond their work place, to engineer positive social change.

Why do we need the Program

To make social change more inclusive through wider participation from community members.
To curate a tribe of youth leaders who are empathetic, creative & committed to bring social change.
To provide an effective platform to youth leaders to engineer social change by leveraging their unique skills.

Who is it for?

Emerging leaders who are open for immersion into a reflective and socially impactful program to find their True North.
Young professionals who have a desire to contribute and leverage their skills & expertise towards social change.
Promising leaders who are keen to hone and further enhance their leadership skills.

What will we learn?

Empathy: Experience & engage with the world with a new perspective that allows you to understand & connect better with people around you.
Creativity: An opportunity to design from scratch and execute a project that channelizes support for impact initiatives serving vulnerable communities.
Leadership: Leading a micro movement that calls out for enrolling supporter & resources, beyond the realm of designations & work environment, will help you grow as a leader.

How does it work?

Orchestrated engagement for an entire year, concurrent to the existing vocations of fellows
Local Immersions to connect & help build a perspective on social change
Master Classes with inspirational leaders from varied backgrounds
Diverse, cross sectional cohort
Ingenious Capstone projects to facilitate positive social change

NOTE: Accounting for public health realities, all engagements/orientations for the 2021 cohort will be in virtual/regional formats.

The Program

52 Week long engagement. Requires commitment of 160 Hours (~20 days, mainly weekends) on behalf of fellows to benefit from & add value to the program.

Phase I: Introduction& Immersion -virtual, and on-site visits, engagement with Akshaya Patra leadership
Phase II: Learning sessions through Master Classes with industry leaders
Phase III: Sandbox – Define your Capstone project – individually or with fellow leaders
Phase IV: Rollout – Bring to life your Capstone project that would mobilize support for impact initiatives.
Phase V: Reflection – Review the journey from immersion to action.

Apply for Next Cohort

Applications for Cohort 21 are now closed. Watch this space for our next announcement

Eligibility Criteria:

Age: 27-35 Years of age by March 31^st of the year of application
Nationality: Indian

All applications are evaluated on leadership skills, creative acumen, entrepreneurial attitude and social impact vision

For any queries, please reach out to [email protected]

Applications for Cohort 21 are now closed

FIRST COHORT 2021

ADITYA VYAS

Aditya is a management graduate currently working with Crompton Consumer. He specializes in Operations and Supply Chain Management. He is married and lives in Mumbai with his wife. He is inspired by the socio economic change bought about by Amul and belives social enterprises are the way forward to lift people out of poverty and bring out a positive societal change.

AKSHAT MALHOTRA

I currently work in a leadership position at HDFC Life and have previously worked with leading Fortune 500 MNCs and marquee startups. My non-profit experience includes launching a ‘fundraising & resource mobilization’ program at Pratham & managing tie-up between Novartis & St. Jude Childcare centers. I have extensively traveled across India and I am passionate to work on social causes.

ANISHA MISHRA

I work as Vice-President Human Resources at Fisdom. I have been associated with many Volunteer Organisations, the most prominent one being the art of living. I have been responsible for skill building initiatives as a part of ICICI Skills Academy. I love my work and love giving back to society. I believe in being good and doing good.

LAKSHMI KRUPA JEYAGANESH

Lakshmi Krupa Jeyaganesh currently serves as an HR Head for Education and Stationery Products Business at ITC Limited. She is an Associate Fellow in Talent Management from The Wharton School and has over to 14 years of HR Experience. She specializes in Strategic HR Business Partnering, Top Talent Management, Performance Frameworks, Learning & Development, Organizational Design & Transformation. Lakshmi brings onboard a diverse industry experience across Telecom, FMCG, Captive IT, Global B2B and Automotive Industry domains. Prior to her current role, she has worked with Renault-Nissan, Tata Coffee, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages and Reliance Communications

MADHURI CHANDRA ANCHURI

Hello! I am Madhuri Chandra Anchuri, Risk Manager by profession working with MSCI for clients located across the globe to onboard risk and analytical solutions. I am also a social entrepreneur at heart, globe trotter by curiosity and mother of a naughty toddler!

PEARL SAWHNEY

The two words that have always fascinated me are ‘media’ and ‘society’, having followed them till date in life I have been educated and working in fields related to them. I have Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Lady Shriram College and Master’s degree in Media Governance from Jamia Millia Islamia. With 7 years of professional experience spreading across media firms, NGOs and corporates, I have gained expertise in strategic marketing planning, organizing events, communication, media planning & PR coordination, training and monitoring, developing training modules, capacity building, skill training, research and project management.

RUCHI AGGARWAL

Ruchi is a former management consultant at McKinsey & Co. She has an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and holds several national level ranks (99.99%ile in CAT, AIR 8 in CAFoundation, B.Com Gold Medalist). She is now an entrepreneur and has founded her own startup, and is also writing a book.

SANTOSH SINGH

Santosh is a marketing and customer experience professional with a career spanning over a decade in Manufacturing and Telecom. A graduate from IIM Bangalore, Santosh has keen interest in consumer psychology and socio-economic matters. He believes that access to good education is the most effective lever for community upliftment

SHREYANS MEHTA

I am Shreyans Mehta, working as a senior associate at BlackRock. I have more than 5 years of experience in data science, technology and finance. My hobbies include reading, writing, and playing badminton. I have been following Akshaya Patra for more than 5 years now, and am super excited to be starting this journey

VAIBHAV JAIN

Vaibhav works with Visa where he leads fintech engagements to digitise small merchants in India. He has 8 years of diverse experience in consultative sales, strategy, product and operations. With Masters from MIT and MBA from IIM Bangalore, he brings to the table the best of both technology and business worlds. He graduated as an Institute Silver Medalist from IIT Roorkee, and is an aspiring theatre and improv artist.

VARUN GOVIND RAJ

A Deep Generalist with 11 years across Strategy, the integrated Supply Chain & Technology consulting at Tata group companies, IBM & the shipping industry with an innate passion to solve problems in the retail, Supply Chain, Logistics, Infra & Pharma sectors