Lila Poonawalla Foundation (LPF), on July 27, declared the commencement of 22nd year of their annual UG-PGscholarship and in this light, past LPF fellows share their experience.
“I never thought of myself as an exceptional student. But, I was hardworking, and I feel that is something Lila Poonawalla Foundation tapped onto. With the confidence given by Lila ma’am, I am where I wanted to be today,” said Dr Harshada Babrekar, one of the beneficiaries of the Lila Poonawalla Foundation Scholarship programme, who is now a research scholar at Savitribai Phule Pune University. He is also the chief editor of the LPF magazine ‘Inspira’.
Having a Marathi school background, Dr Babrekar shared his confidence issues that were completely removed through the LPF personality development workshops. She had received the scholarship for her post graduation in Physics from Pune University and eventually went on to be one among the top ten students of the department.
Like her, Dr Rajani Panchang, one of the few scholars in Pune with a specialisation is Oceanography, especially Micropalaeontology , also benefitted from the scholarship in the 2000.
“I was doing my masters in Geology from Pune University and for my dissertation, I had to be involved in a lot of fieldwork, for which I required aid. The LPF scholarship was of great help there.” With 80.5% marks, she became the topper of the batch and a gold medallist at the Pune University.
Later, she went on to complete her PhD from the National Institute Of Oceanography (NIO), Goa. She was one of the three women PhD scholars at the institute at that time. “I feel proud to have made that record. I also got the most renowned micro paleontologist as my guide, who had never taken a woman researcher under his wing before me. I proved a lot of people wrong who used to think that for women, marriage was the only answer,” she said.
For their illustrious careers, they give a lot of credit to the LPF’s scholarship, which has recently announced their 22nd Annual UG-PG Scholarship. To further academically bright women in their careers, the foundation has till date awarded scholarships to 5,848 students.
Applications from candidates who wish to pursue post graduate studies in any discipline within the Pune district have started. Only those candidates who are in their first academic year in 2017-2018 are eligible to apply for this scholarship.
The scholarship is awarded for the entire period of the course subject, pertaining to the high performance set by the criteria. In addition to the scholarship, various training programs are conducted to develop the girls into confident young women.
[Source”timesofindia”]
