Vocational Excellence Award Presented 2017
Posted on: 27/Jan/2017 10:04:44 AM
The Rotary Club of Madras East (RCME), one of the premium Clubs in Chennai, in association Saraswathi Vidyalaya presented the Vocational Excellence Award 2017 to Mr. Ramji Raghavan, Founder Trustee, Agastya Foundation.
The Chief Guest Cleveland V.V. Sundaram did the honours. Rtn. K. Ananth, President, Rtn. Sudarsan Ranganathan, Secretary, Rtn. Papa Rao, Director – Vocational Services, RCM East and Mr. K. S. Natarajan, Principal, Saraswathi Vidyalaya, were present during the occasion.
Rtn. K. Ananth said, It is apparent that the guidelines laid down by Rotary International for this award have been taken care of, keeping in mind the contribution of Shri. Ramji Raghavan, as a pioneer educator. In addition to the excellence in Education as a service - what is nowadays called Social Entrepreneurship - he and Agastya are serving the country in multiple facets of the educational spectrum - including teacher education, creativity in education, reaching out to remote areas for the purpose of education and Research in education.
About the Awardee
The Agastya International Foundation is a transformative educational organization, actively spreading hands-on learning to poor rural and urban children and teachers in India since 1999.
The Agastya experiment started with a brilliant idea. This was kept aloft through the years by the high-minded idealism and tireless practical work of a small army of volunteers. It is the culmination of the vision and perseverance of one man: Ramji Raghavan.
A 172-acre campus near Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, is the organization’s creativity lab, visited by more than 500 students per day. More than 130 mobile labs spread across over a dozen states in India, and 50 science centers spread across eighteen states take Agastya’s creative pedagogy to more than 1.5 million children and 200,000 teachers every year. To date Agastya has directly impacted, face-to-face, Sixty Lakh children and 2 Lakh teachers. Every day these numbers are growing.
Agastya’s advisers and members include entrepreneurs, scientists, educators, philanthropists, and teachers.
Achievements & Recognition for Agastya Foundation:
Agastya receives humanitarian prize money from former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in 2013.
Agastya partnered with Dr. Kalam on the Mobile Lab program in Bihar.
Agastya is Global Leader of HP New Learner Consortium from 2012 to 2014.
Agastya wins Google Global Impact Award in India for revolutionary TechLaBike project, November 2013.
Agastya is nomininated to list of 100 Global Innovators in April 2013 by Rockefeller Foundation.
Agastya wins the 2013 Manthan Award South Asia & Asia Pacific for iMobile Lab, unique technology-based education initiative by Dell Youth Learning, a signature program to give underserved students access to technology-based learning.
Vocational Excellence Award by RCM East:
RCM East, from RI District 3230, confers as an annual event, The Vocational Excellence Award to individuals who distinguish themselves in their chosen business or professional discipline. Vocational Service is one of the avenues of service in Rotary and the Vocational Excellence Award aims to honour outstanding contributions demonstrating vocational excellence of the highest order. In doing so, he or she is expected to have set a clear example to others, particularly for the youth of our country.
About the Club:
Rotary Club of Madras East is a 3 decade old club in the Rotary International District 3230. With some of Chennai’s eminent citizens as its member, it is a trendsetter in terms of the quality and size of the projects it undertakes. Starting from the vocational training college and Winners Bakery to the mobile Blood Bank and cancer screening bus, RCME has revolutionized the concept of community Service.
RCME also believes in recognizing and honoring men and women who have made a mark in the lives of others and been instrumental in taking the name of India forward. The most heartwarming of the awards is the Young Achiever award.
