Dear Supporter
The aspirations of
our young people are changing and they inspire us every day. We witness that they are brave enough to
break the mould and live a life outside Future Hope’s very caring comfort zone.
There was a time when they would blindly follow older alumni and track the
trodden path, the same couple of university courses that they saw the older
ones doing. Now the world has opened up in their minds.
As the national Gross
Enrolment Ratio (GER) for higher education in India increases from 24.1 percent
in 2016-17 to 27.3 percent in 2020-21, with both male and female GERs
showing an upward trend (Economic Survey 2022-23) and as per the new National
Education Policy (NEP 2020) targets to raise GER to 50 per cent by 2035, our
young people who graduate from school are thinking about a range of new options now
available.
The subjects our
college students, a cohort of 110, now study range from psychology and computer
applications to nursing, media, digital marketing, agriculture, hospital
management, and a host of others, besides the old favourites sports management,
commerce and hospitality. We have both winners and strugglers, as is normal in
life, but their vision to stride the new world is infectious.
In our daily
conversations with them, we learn about the changing universe of ideas and
living: how effective, or not, is online education; does YouTube open up new
vistas in education; how do you survive flashy college fests with simple
attire; how much does it cost to have a simple meal outside in the local
eatery; if college attendance is mandatory why don’t other students come to
class; I cannot understand the southern accent of my professor…
There are some who
can’t cope on the way, falling prey to all enticements online and offline. The
occasional disappointments perhaps make us more steadfast in re-affirming
resolutions.
There are some who
want to get into apprenticeships straight after school and end up being adept
at making pizzas or mocktails, or managing a spa in a five-star hotel. The way they hold
themselves and charm their way into people’s hearts, learn to work as part of a
larger team knowing their exact role, discover and explore unknown territories,
keeps surprising us.
Watching them grow
from childhood to young adulthood is a very special reason to feel proud.
Best wishes,
Sujata, Tim and Erica.