Thursday, December 8, 2011

School board member took state high school exams...

The media has been all over this story of late, where a school board member from Florida, Rick Roach, took standardized 10th grade level reading and math exams, and fared remarkably poorly. If you haven't read it, see this from Huffington Post.

The things that chagrin me about this whole brouhaha are the conclusions people are coming to, with not a single practical suggestion as an alternative.

Let's look at this objectively - yes, the tenth grade math exams test relatively arcane knowledge. The average person has no reason to use his knowledge of trigonometry in day to day life. But to conclude from that "A test that can determine a student's future life chances should surely relate in some practical way to the requirements of life." is not quite getting at the heart of the issue, in my humble opinion.

It instantly begs the question in my mind at least, requirements of whose life? Yes, if the student were to follow in Mr. Roach's footsteps, whose life by all measures is successful, the test is excessive. But what if the student aspires to something different, and wants to keep the doors open to a different career? Perhaps he aspires to go to college and major in something that will guarantee him employment that pays north of $75,000 per year? Perhaps he aspires for a job that won't be taken away by the next person willing to work for a lot less, or a machine that can outwork him 1000x?

If we were to shortlist the number of career options that would provide that kind of salary, a large percentage of them require proficiency in science and higher level math. If we want students to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields in college, it follows that we need to hold them to higher math standards. If we are to dumb down the baseline because "most" people don't use that level of math, what options do we have?

We can try the European/Asian approach to specialization - kids as young as 11 are slotted into an "university track" and "vocational track". Only the kids in the university track get to take advanced math. The rest take the basic math that Mr. Roach and his supporters are suggesting is most relevant.

I am told that in Singapore, kids at the Sixth grade level are made to take exams which will determine their track. In the Netherlands, 11 year olds take exams that slot them into "workers", "technicians" and "academics". In Germany, kids are slotted when they are in FOURTH grade! What next? We will categorize people when they're born into what professions they can enter? Hello caste system! Wait, haven't people been trying to abolish caste system for a while now and the inequities it promotes?

Frankly, I'd rather have students who are over educated in math than suffer the major inequities that arise from this early, forced and artificial sorting.

Yes, I have never once had an opportunity to apply the Riemer-Tiemann equation since I graduated from high school, derive Maxwell's equations from scratch, or apply vector calculus when I visit the grocery store. I suppose you might consider that a waste. But notice that the "waste" doesn't hurt me. If you stop me and ask me to derive Maxwell's equations on my way to the grocery store, I might have to give you a rain check till I refresh my memory courtesy Google. I will then gladly sit down to explain it to you. You might even be sufficiently impressed to offer me a six figure job. Whereas, the student who was offered the lowest common denominator education is *permanently* shut out of opportunities and high paying jobs. That's unfair. I would much rather raise the bar for everyone, than to dumb it down to the lowest common denominator for everyone. If you reach for the stars, maybe you will land on the moon...

My reaction to those who oppose standardized testing is similar. Ok, I see your point, but what is the alternative to fairly compare different students if you want to offer them a limited opportunity, be it a job or a college education? Until the critics come up with a better alternative to either issue, criticizing what exists is moot.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Raising kids to be entrepreneurs

Here's one of the best TED talks I've seen in a while. Cameron makes a very pertinent point - we hire coaches to help us with our deficiencies. Why are we not applying our energies to improving our strengths instead?










Friday, September 16, 2011

LexxLearn is live!

I'm thrilled to announce that we launched LexxLearn today! We are in very early beta at this point.

I still have a bunch of things to do to automate several things before I try and drive traffic there. But I figured that as a good student of the customer development paradigm, LexxLearn should launch with the minimum viable product and iterate quickly, instead of waiting till I have it all figured out.

If you're a parent, I would love to hear your feedback.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

My love-hate affair with Leapfrog

A friend sent me this article about a new product announcement from Leapfrog: http://nyti.ms/jn1nRH It's basically an iPad replacement for kids 5 through 9 and there's a lot of buzz on the web about the rebirth of Leapfrog.

Here's my take on it -

I am a big Leapfrog fan, and own a stable of leapfrog devices personally. I love their toys, yet am very hesitant to purchase this one. I hate a couple of things about Leapfrog.

First, their product roadmap seems to be very poorly thought out. They obsolete their own hardware for no immediately apparent reason, and don't seem to necessarily believe in backward compatibility. I have multiple generations of the Leapster as well as the Leap pad, and each time ended up shelling out money for the next generation of hardware because the add-on cartridges sold in stores with the movie character de jour would not work with the generation of hardware I had. I have grown to absolutely detest this practice.

Second, with this new iPad replacement, I am even more skeptical than usual, because at a $99 price point for a device which boasts a durable (I hope!) 5 inch color screen, 2 GBs of memory and a video camera, the cost of their bill of materials is very high and profit margins are very slim, if any. Till these things start selling at volume, there isn't any economy of scale to reduce manufacturing costs. Between this and the fact they've chosen to not open the platform to third party developers, I suspect their business model is going to be the same as shaving razors. They are planning to charge parents a steep price for each application that will work on the platform, and/or they're going to enable "social" features a la Club Penguin down the line, perhaps in a model with Wi-Fi capability, iPad style.

Third, as yet another leapfrog product, there is no guarantee that this toy will be supported over any length of time.

If they had allowed third party developers on the platform, I might have had a little more faith in the longevity of this new widget. The other reason third party developers may have changed my stance is that with a open marketplace, the best app will have a shot at winning. I am a big believer in the market setting the price for educational content, as opposed to the manufacturer of the hardware platform that supports the content. This has the built-in benefit of vetting content for quality, and consumers will vote with their wallet.

Even a company such as Apple that seems to have mastered the art of creating desirable hardware and software which sells at premium prices has opened up their platform to third party developers as opposed to using the i-devices as a channel for strictly Apple created software, and that's telling. There is a big (dare I say bigger and better?) business in crowd sourcing content.

What do you think? Would you buy this gadget for your child?

Monday, May 30, 2011

The secrets of successful K-12 education

I came across this very interesting article recently that calls for K-12 education reform in the US based on strategies embraced by other top performing nations. I found these two suggestions in particular very interesting:

- Pick one or two grade levels for accountability testing (often, in the top-performing countries, the end of middle school and/or the end of the sophomore year of high school) and make them “gateway tests,” with standards that have to be met before moving on to the next stage of one’s education or training for work.

- Other countries are getting much more for their money by spending less on fancy school buildings, glossy textbooks, intramural sports and district administration and more on their teachers and their most disadvantaged students.

I find these suggestions interesting because I see how this works in the context of the cultures that embrace them, and question whether the culture in the US is conducive to this.

In my experience, the word "competition" seems to be a bad word in US schools. Parents immediately begin to worry about the pressure placed on their children, teachers strive to emphasize accomplishment as an end in and of itself, and the schools focus on the intrinsic value of learning and attempt to motivate students to learn for the love of knowledge. In an ideal world, this is exactly how I'd like it to be. In the meanwhile, Asian students who are used to the pressure cooker atmosphere are rapidly outpacing and out distancing American students. I am not condoning the intense pressure cooker method that's typical of Asian systems, but to shield a student from all pressures of competition is doing them a disservice in my opinion. As the world becomes flatter, the competition for Americans is only growing, and the competition is coming from younger people in greater numbers. Our children need to be taught how to compete effectively, and also to define the terms of the competition.

Other countries may spend less on glossy textbooks and intramural sports but I don't know of any high achieving countries (in the academic sense) that idolize/idealize their sports and sportspeople at the level America does. Accomplishments in sports matter a great deal here, with students who excel getting passing grades in school work regardless of whether it was earned through academic performance, and full scholarships to prestigious universities based on those accomplishments. Given this scenario, is it even realistic to suggest cutting spending on intramural sports?

I have more practical suggestions:

- Yes, let's have gateway exams so kids who read at the first grade level don't end up in high school and drop out.

- Let's make parents who can afford it pick up the tab for their students' ancillary expenses. For those that can't afford it, let's give them scholarships/financial assistance, and the extra help they need to be successful. It doesn't make sense to subsidize every student in the country given limited resources. There will just be less for every one all around.

- Centralize education standards (Common Core Standards are the way of the future) but decentralize financing of education. It's hard for governments to know how exactly to allocate and distribute resources to local communities. This also has the disadvantage of adding layers before the funding reaches the student, and compensating everyone enroute to the student has a marked trickle down effect.

I don't claim to have all the answers but these certainly seem like some obvious ones.

Friday, May 13, 2011

The inspiration that's Kal Raman

I came across this biography courtesy of another blogger Dr. Kumaresh Krishnamoorthy. You can find the original post on his blog here. I have only made cosmetic changes to the content.

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From studying under the streetlights to CEO...

Here is the rags-to-riches story of an extremely talented boy from a small village in Tamil Nadu who has risen to be the Chief Executive Officer of a company in Seattle, USA.

It is also the story of how Kalyana Raman Srinivasan, who was so indigent that he had to study under a streetlight, but then managed to score excellent marks, rose in life and became today's Kal Raman. At every turn in his life, he took the difficult path and it turned out to be the right one and in the right direction. His rise to the top is more dramatic than a thriller. Today, he is a very successful entrepreneur and the founder-CEO of GlobalScholar.

Read his extraordinary story of triumph and determination . . .

Difficult childhood

Kal Raman was born and brought up in a small village called Mannarakoil in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. It was a comfortable normal middle class life for him and his siblings as his father was a Tahasildar there. But the sudden death of his father at the age of 45 changed everything overnight. Kal was 15 then. "My mother got a pension of Rs 420 a month and you can imagine how tough it is to educate four children and feed five mouths with Rs 420?"

His life changed dramatically after his father's death. The family moved from the rented house to a hut that had no proper water supply or electricity. Kal Raman remembers, "All of us used to study under the streetlight and, thank god, the streetlights used to work those days! MGR (M G Ramachandran) was the chief minister then. We had to sell the plates to buy rice to eat and my mother used to give us rice in our hands. That bad was our situation."

But his mother, who had studied till the 8th standard, was very particular that her children studied. "All our relatives wanted my elder brother to stop studying and take up the small job offered by the government but my mother wanted him to continue studying." "Then they wanted me to learn typewriting and shorthand so that I could get some job after the 10th standard. But mother said, 'My children are going to get the best education I can offer. Education is our salvation.' She was my hero for her vision and she still is my hero."

What kept the family going? "We were sad but because we accepted our fate, we were at peace with whatever that happened to us. We knew our father would not come back to lift us up from poverty. We also knew our salvation was a long way away."
He didn't know why he used to tell his mother, "One day I will give you so much money that you will not know what to do with it!" Years later, he did exactly that!

First turning point in life

Kal Raman believes that God played a hand in all the major turning points in his life. The first turning point in life was after his 12th standard. He got good marks in both the engineering and medicine entrance exams. For studying engineering, he got admission at the Anna University in Chennai, while for medicine, it was at the Tirunelveli Medical College.

"While going in the bus with my mother to join the medical college, I told her, "If I join for medicine here, the high probability is that my life may begin and end in Tirunelveli. I really want to see the world." She agreed with my decision to go to Chennai and join Anna University and study Electrical Engineering and Electronics."

So, he stepped into a new world outside Tirunelveli, and that was Chennai. Though he had got merit scholarship and a lot of good people helped him pay the initial fee, the scholarship amount never used to reach him regularly or on time. "The mess fee was Rs 250 a month and I used to be a defaulter in the mess at least six months in a year. Till you pay the mess fee, you cannot eat in the mess. So, I used to live on day scholars' lunch boxes and also use to fast. That is when I learnt to fast ! I must say a lot of friends helped me with money and food."

Scarcity of money was so bad that he had no money to buy food just before the final semester exams. When he gave his final semester exams, he had not eaten for a day-and-a-half. "After finishing the exam, I almost fainted."
The day after the exams came all the scholarship money that was due and it was around Rs 5,000. "So, I went home a rich man and that helped us repay some loans."

First job

Like opting for Chennai and joining Anna University instead of a college in Tirunelveli, Kal Raman took another risk with his first job also. His first job was with Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE), and he had a choice of joining either Chennai or Mumbai.
Although he knew nobody in Mumbai, he chose the capital of Maharashtra.

He remembered the first day. "It was interesting. With bag and baggage, I went to the TCE office after taking a shower at the railway station as I had no money to go to any hotel. After the first introduction at the office, the manager noticed that I was wearing slippers to the office. He called me and said, "I don't care which college you are coming from but this is not acceptable. You should come in shoes tomorrow." I said I couldn't come in shoes the next day and this the manager construed as arrogance. "How could you talk like this?" he asked me. I said, "Sir, it is not that I don't want to, but I can't afford to buy shoes. Only after I get my first pay cheque, can I buy shoes. Sir, I request you not to terminate my job because of this. I and my family need this job."

Shocked to hear the explanation, the manager asked, "Where are you staying?" and the reply was, "Dadar Railway Station."
So distressed was the manager to hear Kal speak that he immediately released a month's salary in advance and also arranged for him to be at his friend's place till he could find a place to stay. "He bought me a pair of shoes and those were my first shoes. The next day, I sent Rs 1,500 from the advance to my mother."

From Electrical engineering to Programming

Kal's rise in career was meteoric in a short span of time. Within a month, he got a chance to move to Bengaluru (then Bangalore) and also to programming. Soon, he was in Chennai with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Within a few months, he was sent to Edinburgh, UK. From Edinburgh, his next stop was the United States. In 1992, he came to the US as an entry level contractor with Wal-Mart. In two years, he was a Director running a division. When he left Wal-Mart after six years, he was a man running the information systems for the International Division of the retail giant.

In 1998, he joined drugstore.com Online Pharmacy as the Chief Information Officer and in 2001 at the age of 30, he was the CEO of the company. He was at the right place at the right time. "God was there at every step guiding me to take the right decisions. I was also willing to take risks and tread new paths," Kal says.

Starting GlobalScholar

Philanthropist Mike Milken who had donated more than a billion dollars to education, wanted to use technology so that high quality education was accessible to ordinary people. Milken convinced Kal to join him. That was the time Kal was building schools in his village for poor students.

In October 2007, GlobalScholar was launched targeting both teachers and students by acquiring four companies -- National Scholar (USA), Classof1 (India), Excelsior (USA), and Ex-Logica (USA) -- that were into education. "Three months after the launch, I travelled all over the US, India, Singapore and China talking to teachers and companies and the public. I found that the only way to impact education was by impressing teachers. The biggest scarcity in the world is good teachers. We decided to help teachers with teaching practices and kids, learning practices."

Kal Raman decided to concentrate on the US market as the US is more advanced in using technology. "They are also willing to pay money for technology. At present, schools buy the material which can be used by teachers, students and parents."
Today, they have 200 people working for GlobalScholar in Chennai and 150 in the US. The study material is prepared in the Chennai office. The company that was started with $50 million will have in excess of $32 million and will generate $5 million of profits. In 2008, the turnover of the company was Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million) and in 2009, it was Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million). In the current year it will be 150-160 crore (Rs 1.5-1.6 billion).

"GlobalScholar is growing at 200 per cent every year. We have 1,000 schools and 10 million students, which is one out of 10 kids in the US, using our study material. This is almost 18 per cent of the US population. We are the fastest growing education company in the US." GlobalScholar will soon introduce a pilot project in India and China. In the course of all this, Kalyana Raman became Kal Raman. "The country gave me everything and took half my name."

Giving back to society

Kal Raman is in India now for the Kumbhabhishekam of the temple at his village Mannarkoil. "It is taking place after 500 years. It is the culmination of two-and-a-half years of work. I have spent more than one and a half crore rupees (Rs 15 million) to renovate the temple and do the Kumbhabhishekam. More than anything else, I have given jobs to all my friends in the village who are masons and carpenters." Other than this, he has also adopted all the orphanages around his village and he takes care of around 2,000 kids, some of whom are physically handicapped. "I feel if I can educate these children, eventually we can make a difference in the society. We also help 100 children in their higher education. Around my village, everyone knows that if a kid who studies well cannot afford to pay fees, he has to only come to my house; his education will be taken care of."
"I do not do this as charity; its my responsibility. I am giving something back to the society that fed me, taught me, and took care of me and gave me hopes. "
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Shuba adds on Mqy 13, 2011:

GlobalScholar was acquired by Scantron Corporation in January 2011 for $160M.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Nine things successful people do differently...

I came across this excellent article in the Harvard Business Review blog. I reproduce it below along with a few lines of commentary -

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Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren't sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.

1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. "Lose 5 pounds" is a better goal than "lose some weight," because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you'll "eat less" or "sleep more" is too vague — be clear and precise. "I'll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights" leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you've actually done it.

2. Seize the moment to act on your goals. Given how busy most of us are, and how many goals we are juggling at once, it's not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.

--> Shuba: The above is spot on. I still don't know how to resolve my particular challenge with this though: My weakness (and therefore goal) is to reach out more often. I recognize a moment which is not pre-meditated, want to seize it, and typically will find myself unequipped to do so. I won't have a phone number, or an Internet connection, or it's an inconvenient time of day for the person I intend to reach out to. I will hesitate even as I sit in the car parked outside their doorstep. Suggestions any one?<--

To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g., "If it's Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I'll work out for 30 minutes before work.") Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%.

3. Know exactly how far you have left to go. Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress — if not by others, then by you yourself. If you don't know how well you are doing, you can't adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently — weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.

--> Shuba: Analytics! The importance and the utility of this I am fully on board with, to the point it's a personal mantra. You can't drive towards that which you can't measure and track <--

4. Be a realistic optimist. When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don't underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure.

5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that no matter what we do, we won't improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.

Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.

6. Have grit. Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime, and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The good news is, if you aren't particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don't have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking .... well, there's no way to put this nicely: you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.

--> Shuba: I think grit is related to the optimism point made before that. The key is to be optimistic about the eventual outcome but be realistic about what could be an arduous journey to get there. Once this is in place, grit follows. <--

7. Build your willpower muscle. Your self-control "muscle" is just like the other muscles in your body — when it doesn't get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.

To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you'd honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don't. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur ("If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.") It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that's the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.

--> Shuba: This works for me. I relish challenges and a bring-it-on response comes naturally to me. I have found this advice doesn't work well for others I need to motivate who are not a Type A personality. What's the secret to motivating them to build willpower? <--

8. Don't tempt fate. No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it's important to always respect the fact that it is limited, and if you overtax it you will temporarily run out of steam. Don't try to take on two challenging tasks at once, if you can help it (like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time). And don't put yourself in harm's way — many people are overly-confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.

--> Shuba: This realization came as a result of eating humble-pie a couple of times and reflecting on why I failed. My lesson learned there was self-confidence needs to be tempered with the right dose of humility to make it a winning combination. <--

9. Focus on what you will do, not what you won't do. Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g., "Don't think about white bears!") has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior — by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken.

If you want change your ways, ask yourself, What will I do instead? For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like "If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down." By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time until it disappears completely.

It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along. Even more important, I hope are able to identify the mistakes that have derailed you, and use that knowledge to your advantage from now on. Remember, you don't need to become a different person to become a more successful one. It's never what you are, but what you do.

Monday, April 18, 2011

A story of grit, determination and achievement over a lifetime.

I am back as promised with the story of Saras Saraswathi. She and I are members of a technical women's mailing list and she had posted this to the list. I reproduce her posts below verbatim with her permission, in reverse chronological order. The "thesis" she refers to is her PhD thesis. Saras was traveling to Canada to help out family even as she was trying to write up her thesis to meet the deadline. I found it mildly ironical that the one who's named after the Goddess of learning and knowledge should experience this, but the outcome is only fitting.

Perhaps you will find it as inspiring as I did. I feel incredibly fortunate and grateful to have had all the opportunities I've had, together with extremely supportive family and friends (you know who you are!) that have enabled me to take advantage of them. Thank you.

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On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 4:27 AM, Saras wrote:

Hi Everyone...

My 38 year old dream came true yesterday. I successfully defended my thesis two years ahead of my classmates.

My research was in Secondary Structure Prediction of Proteins. We have very high accuracies of over 90% and I will be spending the next couple of months publishing my papers. I hope to join Nationwide Children's hospital in Ohio state later on.

Had to share this with my SYSTERS !! Thanks to all those people who rooted for me.. I still remember the day in 2007, when I was overwhelmed with all your responses and encouragement.

Saras
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On Tue, Nov 20, 2007 at 5:48 PM, Saraswathi wrote:

Hi.. all,

I am back in school after 35 years... Just wanted to be proud of it.. and announce it to all of you...The story of my pursuit of education is for all those who are still trying to pursue their dreams............ read on if you are discouraged in any way.... and I hope to inspire you to keep going.....

I did not get a chance to pursue my studies in a university after my marriage was arranged at 16 in India. (1972). My family thought the best bet in life for me is to be married to a 'well educated' person and it was not important for me to be educated myself... I was the best student in my class in high school and all I was interested in was books, books and books. Unfortunately , my family did not agree with my views and did not let me go back to college.

Of all the boys and girls ( cousins, almost 20 of us, with equal number of boys and girls) in the family, although they knew I did better than anyone in my studies, everyone except me got a college education. Except me, just because my horoscope matched with the boys' horoscope !! I later found out that it did not match after all, and that 'things' were moved along, so that the girls' side could get a 'good catch' and the boy's side wanted a good 'housekeeper'. !!

I made a vow to myself, that even if I am 80 I will go back to school, when I get a chance at education in a world class university. This was all I meditated on for the past 35 years.... One day, I will continue where I left off....

Meanwhile, just to keep my brains from rusting, I did a correspondence course soon after my marriage, to make sure I had a basic degree at least. I had to take math and economics since they were the only subjects which did not involve lab work. I had my daughter the following year and even had to take her to the exam hall, since my family refused to babysit her while I wrote my exams. But i was naturally thrown out of the exam hall when my baby started screaming!!. this afffected my grades of course... they hoped I wont graduate.... I was determined to do this anyway and got my degree after 5 yrs instead of 3.

anyway I did my MS in CS in 1985 at ODU, when I got a break while visiting USA for a couple of years. I was not allowed to attend all my classes and never leave my kids with babysitters ( not that we could afford it). Still, I managed to graduate. Since I was not allowed to work over these years, to pass time, I taught IT part-time in colleges/universities and I did many courses, CCNA, E-Commerce engineering, became a certified accountant and did many other courses and learned to play many musical instruments, to keep my mind busy ( to avoid going mad).

But my life ambition was to do a PhD and it kept nagging my heart all the time. Because of my age, I could not get any job offers. I was surprised that there was no response from any companies, although I applied to hundreds of them over the years in USA and Singapore (between 2000 and 2005). I never found out why.. .. no one wanted to employ me.. Perhaps too many degrees or too wide a base, not enough industrial experience ?? So, how to leave home with no job to support myself ?

I had to wait another 21 years before I got admission for MS in bioinformatics at NTU, Singapore. I managed to finish the course in one year.. I had applied to many universities in USA. No admission was offered until May and I was at the lowest point in my life. I had a GPA of 3.64 and three research papers and twenty years of research, teaching and consulting experience.. but still no offers !!... FINALLY..... I got admission at IAstate and here I am. I am 53 years old.. and hope to finish my PhD within 5 years.....

There have been untold miseries in my fight to get an education.. I did not want to agree with people who thought that I do not need to pursue what I wanted just because I was born a woman in a poor Brahmin family and married to a conservative family who did not believe in woman advancement. I was forced to be a cook and do house work all these years in spite of my insatiable thrist for knowledge. I brought up two daughters and was determined they got the education I did not get. One is a gold medalist with a MS in networking and another is a nanotechnologist with a PhD. Both are professional musicians also. I have two grand kids.. 6 and 2 yrs.. a boy and a girl

Finally when I insisted that I wanted to pursue my study on a full time basis, I was told that I could stay if I wanted to continue to be a cook or leave forever....In my last months of studying, I even paid the expenses for my food and rent, in my own house !! So, I left when I got the admission offer from IaState !! It is totally unbelievable that this could happen, since we have lived together for over 35 years... with me doing most of the housework with no servants .. most the tutoring for the children came from me and that too when he is a university professor !!. I guess it was foolish of me to have stayed that long.. hoping that there will be a change of attitude. But the things you do in the name of family and kids and a closed society are quite unbelievable. I never could convince him of my thirst for knowledge...

so.. wish me well.. and I hope to write to you sometime.. when I finish my PhD. 5 yrs..? 6 yrs..? who knows.!!. the important thing is I am enjoying myself pursuing what I always wanted to do... and bless the souls who finally gave me a chance at this !!

I am writing this not to brag.. but for those who are pursuing your dreams... in all those countries where women education is not a priority.. dont lose sight of your dreams.. it is NEVER too late... Sustain your hopes and there will be someone somewhere who will help you achieve your goals and fulfill your dreams....

It does not matter what anyone thinks what we can or cannot do. We can do one of the most wonderful things.. bringing a life to earth.. IN ADDITION to everything that THEY can do !! Isn't that good enough ??

WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS WHAT WE BELIEVE WE CAN DO ......

Saras

Saturday, April 9, 2011

An inspiring beginning to 2011

I can't believe I haven't posted once so far in 2011. But perhaps it was for the best because I come bearing an inspirational story this time. I have requested the protagonist to write a guest post on my blog, or if she's too busy, permission to reproduce an email she wrote to all of us on the mailing list. It's a story of incredible drive, tenacity, determination and an insurmountable will to win against all odds. It's hard not to be incredibly inspired by her story. Stay tuned!