Today we’d like to introduce you to Srisindhu Medukonduru
Hi Srisindhu, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
From living in a village in India and then initially immigrating into a rural town in America, since a young age, I’ve been exposed to the educational struggles that children of lower socioeconomic status endure. My family was able to save up the money and move into a suburban neighborhood mainly to offer my sister and I better educational opportunities, but even though I enjoy the privilege of being able to access a quality k-12 affordable education full of enrichment opportunities, I have always known that lesser privileged children do not have the same kinds of access nor interest. This brings me to what I am working on doing today with a team of individuals who believe in the same purpose of ensuring fair educational access for all children.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t always been easy because starting a non-profit takes a great deal of time and planning, and being able to delegate tasks and rely on others can be challenging at times. Initially, the main issue we struggled with was being able to find donors to support our initiatives and at times, many shelters we tried partnering with were not willing to work with us because of your young age or lack of training.
As you know, we’re big fans of STEMstars Literacy Foundation. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Children of lower-socioeconomic status are often too concerned with being able to have a stable home or meal every night, and it’s for children like them that my team and I decided to start a non-profit where we work to reignite a passion in learning amongst these kids and offer them STEM opportunities. We have been able to visit several homeless shelters, foster homes, domestic abuse homes, and rural, underserved areas to have these opportunities where we work one-on-one with these children in these areas. What we primarily focus on when it comes to working with children, we create short children’s books with our own stories and illustrations that feature a child overcoming a certain struggle in order to get into a career in STEM. With the stories, we read them to young kids in order to stimulate an interest in education, and we implement hands-on creative, engaging activities as we work with kids to further develop that interest in STEM education. In addition, we organize awareness campaigns to educate communities and host fundraisers to raise money to support these children financially in order to help them whilst forging their own educational paths. In addition to donations, we work in offering care packages to these underserved communities as well.
What makes you happy?
Being able to work with kids and help them learn is what makes me the happiest in my organizations. Seeing those wheels turning in their brains as they understand a challenging concept or ask questions really helps me know that we are making an impact on kids who simply just need a little guidance towards their education and I thoroughly enjoy being able to see these kids passionate about their own learning.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.stemstarsliteracyfoundation.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stemstarsliteracyfoundation
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Stemstarsliteracyfoundation-Stemstarsliteracyfoundation/
Image Credits
STEMstars Literacy Foundation
