CROWDFUNDING ALERT – Gift “Know Your Star” Role Model Story Workbook Series – 5 Volumes To Rural And Underprivileged Students
Most of us have grown up with a narrow scope of careers to pursue; not for lack of skills or capability, but for lack of awareness and information about the diverse opportunities waiting for us out in the world. So we asked ourselves, what can we do to provide students with the information and inspiration required to make conscious decisions while choosing their life paths. The answer came in two words – Role Models!
Why Do We Need Role Models?
With access to inspiring stories of role models from different professions, a child doesn’t always have to choose from being an “engineer, doctor or accountant!” Don’t take us wrong, there is absolutely no harm in pursuing these professions that have become so mainstream today, but we believe it should be a conscious choice and not one made because of lack of career awareness.
Won’t it be refreshing to enter a classroom of 30 students and get at least 20 different answers to the question – “What do you want to become when you grow up?” instead of a couple of professions on repeat? Won’t it be amazing to ask a child why he/she wants to become, say a painter, and they say – “Because I have a great flair for art and I enjoy painting!” instead of “Because my father said so!”?
Well, this is our dream! We dream of a world where every child has realised their highest potential. And to take a step in that direction, we have set out on a mission to ensure that every child has role models to look up to, and is on a journey to become one!
We don’t want a student to aspire to become the role model they look up to. No! We wish for students to catch values, lessons, information and inspiration from these stories, and go on to achieve great things in their respective self-chosen life paths, make new paths for themselves, and excel in the field they want to pursue. We wish for these children to grow up to become student leaders and be responsible role models for other people in their community!
Who Is A Role Model?
We understand, that the terminology ‘Role Model’ has subjective definitions and is very frequently mistaken as icons and celebrities. While many icons and celebrities can be role models, it’s not necessary that every role model is an icon or a celebrity! To share with you the important qualities that a role model displays, we have designed the following infographics for you –
Real Life Role Model Inspiration Story Of Our Co-Founder!
Jaideep Rao, our co-founder, was one of the many lucky school students to be invited to Manipal Institute of Technology when the then President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam visited the university in the year 2003. A 13-year old Jaideep was blown away by Abdul Kalam’s motivational speech nudging all the students to dream!
Jaideep along with other students left with a gift of the book – Wings Of Fire. This was the first book he read as a kid, and was so inspired that he still credits his first revelation towards shaping his own life to the role model he found in Dr. Kalam.
Introducing The “Know Your Star” 5-Volume Series For Kids
The ‘Know Your Star’ series was conceptualised to raise awareness among students about the different opportunities available to them by introducing role models in their lives. By sharing the stories of these role models, we aim to broaden the horizons of our youth, sow seeds of aspiration, and nurture strong dreams.
Each volume consists of 10 stories of role models, who have made a strong impact in their chosen fields. Each story charters the path that the role model took to achieve their dreams, while also giving insight into the multiple challenges they faced and how they tackled it. The books have been developed with utmost care and lots of love, and also feature simple explanations for complex professions for easy understanding. The books are peppered with individual and group challenges that nudge students to view the world differently. The special feature about the book is that the inside pages have been designed with beautiful hand-drawn black and white illustrations, to double up as a coloring book!
Here’s a peek into this heartful project!
Crowdfund To Make This Book Come Alive!
Be a part of our mission to ensure that every student has access to diverse role models. Encourage the future painters, astronauts, magicians, scientists, engineers, dancers and doctors to dream, build and achieve by making this book a reality!
We can gift a set of Know Your Star books to a child for INR 1000. We are currently working in 24 schools, and touching the lives of about 5000 students. How many students can you help us reach? 🙂
Here’s the crowdfunding link. Please share this with your friends and family, and help us ensure that every student is exposed to a world of dreams and possibilities! 🙂
If you can donate right away, here’s the direct payment link!!! Let’s do this!
Enjoyed reading about this? Then you might like to read Sadhana Konnur – A Volunteer Artist’s Journey Of Illustrating For The Know Your Star Book Series
If there’s a story that needs to be told, we are ready to tell it. Write to us at contact@knowyourstar.com with your story lead, or contact us on Facebook or Twitter.
