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Till sometime back, going to school was just another chore for Gayatri, a class 9th student from DTEA
Lodhi Estate school who hails from a middle class family in New Delhi, India.
It all changed sometime back with American India Foundation’s Digital Equalizer program which has
played a catalytic role in her academic journey. Gayatri underwent all the major programs under DE and
tremendously benefitted from each one of them.
She proudly says “Earlier classes
were so boring, all were the same
and I forced myself to attend
them. But now I look forward to
participating in classes.”
She began her journey of
transformation by taking national
Financial Literacy Test (NFLAT) and
came under merit list crediting DE
for this achievement.
She
reminiscences this inspired her to
embark upon the journey to
become financially literate and
learnt many financial terms. Subsequently, she also visited State bank of India (Ambedkar Nagar branch)
for the first time with her parents and independently deposited her accumulated savings.
Another applaudable achievement for Gayatri and her parents is that she confidently speaks in English
and also featured in the DE contest video which was voted amongst the top 3 entries from Delhi. Gayatri
says not only she but all her friends have started communicating in English. She says “I now speak in
English even at home making my family proud of myself”. English Helper greatly helped these students
to pronounce and write correct English.
Her long cherished dream of experiencing global classroom and assimilating learning from across the
national borders was fulfilled after she was enrolled in the Global Scholar program. With excitement she
describes how she interacts, learns and discusses her queries with her peer from the US.
And finally she closes this conversation by adding that she can now operate a computer system
independently and assists the DE coordinator in conducting DE classes with the system. She always waits
for DE classes as she gets to watch videos which ultimately helps to understand the concepts and is
altogether a different experience.
Gayatri says “My parents and I never thought that I can undergo such tremendous transformation. I
always look forward to engage myself in all the programs Neeraj sir (DE coordinator) informs me about. I
now love coming to school and participating in classes and have overcome many hurdles posed due to
my economic background.”
Hence DE has been acting as a change agent to help Gayatri and many like her to realize their potential
through bringing about an overall transformation in their personality.