Yogeesh: A future engineer — The success story goes on…
On December 19, 2020, I had written about a success story of the VSP…
Yogeesh, an alumnus of the Government High School Katte Hunsur, H D Kote taluk, had just joined the BE (Comp Sci) program at the National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysuru — a reputed engineering college in the city.
Hailing from a poor family, he had to tackle multiple hurdles including poverty, a prolonged bout of typhoid during PU (11th — 12th std), and the challenges of switching from Kannada medium (in High School) to English medium (in Pre-University Education). His family struggled to support his medical treatment expenses and had lost over 3 months of attendance in college. With his grit and determination, and the consistent support of the well-wishers including his school teachers and the VSP team, he completed PU with a commendable 92.7%.
After this PU, Yogeesh worked along with his father as an agricultural labourer to save some money for his college studies. Though he received a considerable amount as a scholarship, his admission was possible only after his father could borrow Rs. 60,000 from moneylenders. Amidst all this, he qualified in JEE (Mains) but skipped JEE (Advanced) because he couldn’t afford to pay the entrance fee and was too embarrassed to seek any more financial support from his teachers.
Today, even before the 7th semester began, Yogeesh secured a placement at a software firm with an offer of Rs 9 lakhs per annum. He is confident that he will secure an even better job with over a year to go before he completes his engineering studies. Nearly three years after my earlier note about Yogeesh, he is still the future engineer — one that we will all be proud of!
His story is a testament to the immense potential of students in rural India, the positive influence of great teachers at school on such students, and the support of programs like Vijnana Vahini and VSP.
VSP had to be more than an academic program — the revolving fund
Several people had pitched in to ensure his admission to NIE. But that wasn’t sufficient to stop the need for a loan from the moneylender (education loans from banks are accessible after admission only) and the nerve-wracking experience of admission on the very last day.
At SVYM, this incident pushed us to look beyond mere academic & emotional support, VSP had to facilitate admissions, bank loans and handholding throughout the students’ higher education. A few months after Yogeesh’s admission to college, we created the VSP Revolving Fund (Rs 14 lakhs) to offer short-term “loans” to students at the time of admission into higher educational institutions. The students are encouraged to repay the amount (without interest, but with a Rs 1 contribution from them) after they secure an education loan or in small instalments.
27 students have so far availed loans, ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1.2 lakhs, from this fund. In one case, the revolving fund complemented by the education loan, ensured that a student didn’t drop out of engineering college because of a medical emergency and related expenses at home while in another case, it helped a single-parent child secure a medical college seat. 9 students have already repaid the loans fully while 6 others have repaid it partially.
While supporting many more students, we are also hopeful that this fund will grow in size in the years to come.
