Beyond High School - November Edition
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For High
Schoolers
A monthly magazine for educators, parents, and high schoolers.
Designed to inspire & prepare high schoolers for life beyond.
ISSUE 5 | NOVEMBER 2023
Build skills for
social impact
Ashoka University’s social impact
student club shares insights on the
skills needed for social impact.
Impact-driven
research
How can research contribute
to social impact?
Nurture your bond
with nature
Learn how to create a mini-garden at
home to improve your well-being
and make a positive impact on the
environment.
Dear readers,
We are so delighted to take you through a new journey in this issue of our magazine. This
November, Beyond High School is excited to introduce you to the world of Social Impact.
We stand at a unique point in time, and learning about the social impact sector is crucial to
raise empowered and empathic individuals, who become effective leaders and problem
solvers.
You might wonder how social impact holds relevance in your life, or how YOU can create
impact. Well, this issue aims to inspire you to start slow and start somewhere. We
discuss a range of ways through which individuals have contributed to the social good, in
their own unique ways. From planting a sapling to using multiple academic skills to make
the world a better place, there are no rules to creating impact.
Our spotlight is on individuals who have become real life heroes striving to drive positive
change. We believe their passion is contagious, and has the potential to inspire your own
social impact journey.
From developing skills to thrive in the social impact sector, accessing portals that can
harness one’s career in this field, to aligning social good with better mental health
practices, take your pick in the wide world of social good. We invite you to explore this
issue not just as readers, but as the harbingers of a movement that can transform our
future for greatness.
So, turn the pages and let fresh ideas brew…
Warmly,
Smridhi Chadha
Office of High School Programmes
EDITOR’S NOTE
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ART INSTALLATION AT ASHOKA UNIVERSITY
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Imagine doing research that transcends disciplines and library shelves. Claudia
Goldin, the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics 2023, spent years solving the
mysterious question around gender wage-gap. She wondered, if men and women do
the same job, why do their paychecks look different?
The conclusions of her discoveries are exceptionally important, and so is her research
methodology. This is where students can draw inspiration from Goldin, as she looks at
various disciplines to arrive at results which help us understand the hidden parts between
what we easily see as black or white.
Using multidisciplinary insights, she discovered how most women who are not paid fairly
often wish to pursue both professional and family goals; this is what she calls the mommy-
track. Their dual ambition compels them to juggle priorities between work and family, due
to unequal distribution of labour between the husband and the wife back home.
Picture Goldin as a detective who used cues from different worlds of history, sociology,
psychology to solve what riddled her - why did women earn less than men? She opened
her toolkit and picked up a variety of tools to join the missing pieces. She wore the
robes of a historian as she went through public records from two centuries. She got on the
field and operated as a sociologist, learning why certain tasks are assigned to specific
genders. She became a student of psychology and uncovered the hidden biases that
compel women to walk on the mommy-track, sometimes deprioritising their careers.
RESEARCH IN FOCUS
THE TOOLS THAT MAKE THE TOOLBOX
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Claudia Goldin,
Henry Lee Professor
of Economics,
Harvard University
Beyond High School | Page 4
She questioned straightforward thinking, and came up with creative ideas to play with
economics. She brought in more colours within economics than what had ever been seen
before, marrying it with statistics, humanities, social sciences and beyond. Goldin went
through social experiments as an observer, assessed impacts of policy and education,
employed quantitative and qualitative data alike to build profound research. As an
economist, and a thinker of wider disciplines, she painted a broader and impactful
narrative to solve the riddle.
And that’s why her research is not just numbers and statistics, it is meant to have
real-world impact. It is our guide to make inclusive spaces, and make the world a better
place for people of all genders. It is research we all can go back to learn how we can make
better policies, and make workspaces healthier environments. Lastly, it is a gentle reminder
to use all the tools from the toolbox of multidisciplinarity!
Find out more about her inspiring research here.
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Do you use the many tools available at your disposal? How do you think using
ideas from diverse disciplines has helped you to grow? Share your responses
with us here!
SKILLS IN FOCUS
In this section, Team Anitya, the social impact student club of Ashoka, shares some
key skills useful for creating social impact.
Anitya aims to foster community dialogue around social impact and how we, as students
and leaders, can generate value in our communities and organizations. The club serves as
a platform to connect students, organizations, & professionals in the social impact space
and create educational, experiential, and networking opportunities for community
members. Through initiatives and events, students are exposed to various social problems
and develop skills to solve them.
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Many of us have ambitious motivations of making a tangible impact on the world, but what
are the skills that are required to work towards this prosocial goal? In building Anitya, one
of our primary goals was to expose students to the development sector and the skills
requisite for solving various social problems. In our journey with the club over the years,
we realized that through our own work on social impact initiatives, we have been instilled
with the values and skills to thrive in this space. We outline the three most crucial ones
below:
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BUILDING SKILLS FOR SOCIAL IMPACT:
STRONG ORGANIZATIONAL AND STAKEHOLDER
MANAGEMENT SKILLS:
As is also often the case in the development sector, we are consistently
trying to maximize our club’s impact with minimal resources. In this
setting, it is critical that one’s organizational capabilities are at their most
efficient. Over time, we’ve developed our communication abilities as
club leaders, learning to tailor our message to resonate with different
audiences, from members to potential partners and beneficiaries.
Project management skills, from conceptualization to execution, have
been learnt with slow but steady determination, as we juggled our
academic commitments and club responsibilities. While this process has
been a steep learning curve, it is bearing rewards in terms of the
consistently engaging events we are able to deliver to the student body.
BEING RECEPTIVE TO FEEDBACK:
We are grateful for the opportunity to have formal and informal
conversations
with
many
mentors,
alumni
and
social
sector
professionals who give us valuable insights from their own journeys in
the development sector. It is important that one remains open to such
conversations; taking constructive feedback with a positive attitude and
valuing the experience of those who have trodden similar paths before.
PERSISTENCE AND NOT LOSING SIGHT OF THE BIGGER
PICTURE:
Our journey with the club has been one of persistence: not every project
yielded the expected outcomes, and not every effort met with
immediate success. But it is important that through these moments of
adversity, we remain strong in our resolve. Not every action you take
might directly lead to impact, but it is pivotal that you realise that it all
adds up to your end goal of fostering meaningful change. Such
moments will become touchstones for growth, as it did for us at Anitya,
and will continue to resonate deeply in your future endeavours.
The Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy developed the social sector talent
management and compensation database as a repository of knowledge on various
aspects of working in the sector. The portal hosts static and dynamic dashboards that
illustrate compensation data across roles (in terms of hierarchical level, function and
scope) and types of organizations (in terms of region, funding size, thematic area and
headcount size). The portal also has reports that describe perceptions of employees about
various aspects of their work. One of the reports also details the various push and pull
factors that motivate people to join and stay in certain types of organizations. One can also
learn about various reasons for voluntary attrition in one of the reports. Together, these
shall empower social sector aspirants to have a more robust understanding of the sector in
terms of sector working conditions and conditions of work to make desirable career
choices. This means that before seriously considering the social sector as a career choice,
the data portal offers a one-stop destination to be informed about what to expect in terms
of compensation and other motivation/ demotivation factors while working in a certain
kind of role/ function in a specific category of organization.
Dr. Neha Nimble
Senior Manager- Research
Centre for Social Impact & Philanthropy, Ashoka University
TECH & DATA OF INTEREST
THE
SOCIAL
SECTOR
TALENT
MANAGEMENT
AND
COMPENSATION DATABASE: A ONE-STOP DESTINATION
FOR SOCIAL SECTOR ASPIRANTS
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As more and more young people seek purpose-driven work,
the social sector seems to offer a perfect opportunity to serve
the society and make a living. At the same time, for those
already in the sector, work in the sector is also synonymous
with challenging and arduous work with little rewards and
benefits. Considering the low compensation as compared to
the for-profit sector, what are the different factors that
high schoolers should know before taking a call on
joining the sector? Where is it that they can seek the
information they need to enter the sector reasonably
informed so that they do not become disenchanted as soon
as they get motivated?
CHILLIN’ IS FULFILLIN’
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Anyone can become a #PlantParent today. Amongst Gen-z, a latest trend has been to
develop nurturing and personalized relationships with plants. As a generation that has
recently come out of a pandemic, nurturing plants has allowed them to have a sense of
control over the future and develop a positive impact on their mental health and the world
around them.
Young minds are seeking deeper relationships with their jade plants, terrariums, or even a
cactus. Treating their plant like their child or a pet, the trend to become a first-time-plant-
parent is on the rise, and we cannot complain!
It's only fair that in today's fast-paced and often chaotic digital world, cultivating a
meaningful connection with nature has a special value. If you want to join the clan, consider
home gardening. This might be an enjoyable way for you to develop a niche space for
yourself and create social and environmental good.
MAKING FRIENDS WITH THE GREENS!
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STEP 1: CHOOSE YOUR PLANTS
Start small with low-maintenance houseplants. As you gain confidence, you can
explore herbs and flowering plants. Tailor your selection to your living space and
light conditions.
STEP 2: GATHER YOUR SUPPLIES
Bring out any pots, soil, seeds or plants, and gardening tools. Be creative with the
containers you choose! Upcycled jars or vintage teacups can add personality to
your garden. Consider adding fairy lights for a cozy, intimate atmosphere.
STEP 3: NURTURE YOUR PLANTS
Learn about your chosen plants' specific needs – water, sunlight, and care
routines. Paying regular attention to your plants will help you build a strong bond
with them. Consider naming them to foster deeper connections with them.
STEP 4: ESTABLISH A GARDENING ROUTINE
Allocate time in your schedule to care for your plants every day. Try looking at
trending hashtags like #plantparenthood on Instagram, which has about
1.9M posts, and learn what the plant-world has on offer.
Here's a guide to help you start gardening at home:
STEP 4: JOIN LIKE-MINDED COMMUNITIES
Why not share the joy of home gardening with others? Share your progress and
challenges on social media platforms, like Instagram and Pinterest, and join
communities to stay inspired. Many home gardeners are also passionate about
sustainability. You might pick up other practices from them such as growing
vegetables and composting.
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