Alumni help poor students join IIT

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A group of IITians across the country have busted the myth that IITians do not pay back to society by joining hand to form Avanti Fellows, a not-for-profit trust to coach students from the poor and oppressed sections of society and help them join IIT.

Some of the IITians have left well-paying jobs to mentor aspirants. “We had some friends who had fought tremendous odds to clear the IIT joint entrance examination (JEE). Their stories and the impact IIT education had on their lives made us build a national movement, Avanti Fellows, in 2010,” says Akshay Saxena, founder of Avanti Fellows and alumnus of IIT Bombay.

Avanti, a largely student-run social enterprise, provides career guidance and mentorship, and has coached 115 students in seven cities, including Chennai last year. It plans to coach 5,000 in 2016.

The organisation has about 45 members with two managers and one director. Students get selected after two rounds of aptitude tests and personal interviews, said the co-founder and chief executive officer of Avanti Fellows, Krishna Ramkumar.

“After they get shortlisted in the aptitude test we visit their house and check credentials. We have partnerships with various IIT coaching centres that admit these aspirants free of cost. We also mentor them with motivating tips and ideas,” he said.

In May 2010, Avanti won the Stanford BASES Social E-Challenge and in July 2010 it was selected as a Pan IIT Alumni India initiative.

Aspirants, as well as those who wish to mentor IIT aspirants, can contct info@avantifellows.org [2].