18^th November 2018:

The Doon School along with Ashoka: Innovators for the Public and Oracle celebrated Changemaker Day on 18^th November 2018, where students were encouraged to become changemakers and empathetic leaders. The Day focussed on celebrating the culture of entrepreneurship and social innovation on campus.

Co-created with Ashoka India’s Youth Venture, the Changemaker Day was aimed at strengthening the ecosystem within the school that values and supports young people to be changemakers who can apply the skills of Empathy, Teamwork, new Leadership and Creativity to solve complex social problems.

The sessions at the event delved on the concept of social entrepreneurship and changemaker skills. Many students also participated in the Flash Pitch competition, presenting their own ideas and initiatives. With workshops on systems thinking and empathy, these students received input to help scale their work on enhance their impact.

Speaking on the occasion Ms. Stuthi Kuthiala, Deputy Head (Pastoral) said, “… Through Changemaker day we are moving further towards supporting budding changemakers and social entrepreneurs. Through the event we are taking a big step forward to strengthen the culture where every child and teenager of our school and other schools of Dehradun gets to learn and practice changemaking.”

Some of the key speakers at the event were Arjun Venkatraman, Ashoka Fellows & Co-founder of Hacker Gram; Nupur Agarwal, Founder, Evolve Foundation and Shubham Dhiman, Ashoka Youth Venturer & Co-founder of Project Innovation.

Speaking on the occasion, Yashveer Singh, Director, Youth Venture, South Asia said, “Through the Youth Venture program, Ashoka aims to celebrate the “new” role that young people are playing towards building an Everyone a Changemaker world. This program not only helps these students to take leadership role to bring about a positive change in the society but also recognizes the importance to motivate other students to be changemakers. The only way forward to address the problem of our country is to unleash the changemaker instincts of our youth, so that they not only create opportunities for themselves but for other young people as well.”