Sahasra to make students self-sufficient

Founded by Sai Prasad, Sahasra provides career counseling to students and also sponsors scholarships to meritorious students who lack financial aid. Sai, who was featured on popular TV series Satyamev Jayate stunned the world by the grit with which he conquered all odds as a paraplegic, talks about the venture in detail

All that it takes for a dream to take shape into an idea is inspiration and determination. Sahasra, a venture by Sai Prasad and his team, is one such idea which has gone on to become one of the most successful scholarship ventures ever in the country.

Started by an ex-CBITian and an alumnus of Indian School of Business, Sahasra encourages meritorious students who are not financially sound. Sai recalls his post graduation days when he did not have enough money to study abroad though he had admission letters from several top universities.

"That's when I decided to raise funds for my higher education by organising a seminar on placements and study abroad in my college. Since I was a topper, it did not take long before I convinced the management to give me permission for the seminar. I was confident that the students too would support my efforts," he recalls.

Thus began the idea for starting a venture on student counseling some years back and just within the last six months, it has reached over 4,000 students. "Apart from this we also managed to convince the entire 2011 and 2013 batch of CBIT to pledge their eyes for donation," he says.

With a smile on his face 24/7, Sai does a good job of hiding the hurdles he had to face all through his life to reach a dominating position. A paraplegic from birth, Sai has come up the hard way and with no help. "I don't like the reservation system for the disabled that the Government provides. What the disabled requires is not reservation but opportunity and confidence," he says. It is no doubt this confidence and determination to break barriers that has enabled Sai Prasad to not just share screen with Aamir Khan on the well-known TV series Satyamev Jayate, but also become the first Asian paraplegic to venture to Antarctica.

Modus Operandi Sahasra, a non-profit venture works on a simple formula. Charge the students for a two-day session/ workshop which trains them on placements, GRE, GMAT, CAT and other competitive exams and disburse 30 per cent of the collected amount as scholarships among meritorious students who would in turn be identified by student volunteers.

"We don't inform the students beforehand about the scholarships. We ask every participant to write essays-Why they need the scholarship and if not them who will they nominate for it? Though the second essay is optional, we tend to select those who attempt the second essay and then conduct a personal interview and select them," Sai explains.

Currently Sahasra is run by six people including Sai Prasad- Swati Chitteti, Vinay Kumar, Sindhura Akella, Niveditha and Ajay Jain with two of them working full time on the venture. "The students are informed of the various exit options they have before them post engineering and we advise them on how to go about them. Swati is an ISBian and has cracked GMAT while others in the team have aced GRE and CAT too," adds Sai.

Unlike other student organisations, Sahasra does not accept funds from alumni of CBIT or ISB. "The idea is to create value among students. So we don't accept funds from former students. Our aim in the long term is for Sahasra, the venture to not exist. We hope that the system changes in such a way that the colleges themselves can reach out to students who need help," he says. Apart from guiding the students, the team is also helping set up leadership centres in colleges across the city and state. "The idea is to create a group of people who are role models," adds Sai.

The last six months saw the Sahasra team reach out to seven engineering colleges across various districts reaching 4,000 students. Overall they claim to have reached out to 20,000 students. The team charges anywhere between Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 now for their workshops; "Students are willing to spend that amount on these 'Deep Dive' sessions as they are given tips on how to excel in group discussions and personal interviews." Recently, Sahasra fully sponsored a student who currently pursues her masters at George Mason University in the US.

Currently, Sai Prasad and his team aim at creating a corpus fund of at least one crore rupees. This time their goal is different. "We plan to raise this amount to create awareness about global warming, climate change, etc. We aim to involve corporates to accept the concept of promoting the cause of global warming. The aim is to select 10 to 15 students who will travel to Europe etc and tell the developed nations that they are equally responsible for global warming," he informs.

For now, Sahasra continues to make waves in the student counseling field and can be reached at [email protected]