 A very good morning to everyone joining us live on this beautiful Sunday morning. Pune City newspapers have been carrying an exciting piece of news for the last two days and it makes me very happy to welcome all our audiences to a very interesting show that will not only give more insights into that news but I promise will be extremely inspiring. I am honored to be in the company of some wonderful people here today. Before I introduce the start of the show, I'd like to acknowledge and thank the presence of our director principal Dr. Amrita Vohra, Mr. and Mrs. Garg, parents to Dhwani Garg and Anansh Prasad, the founder and MD of Skillshare Education and Knowledge Partners. Welcome everyone. Dhwani Garg, Dhwani the girl in class 7, 8, who shows a bright spark always, Dhwani the leader, Dhwani the responsible student, Dhwani the creative writer, Dhwani the one who speaks her mind, Dhwani the one who is made school proud at various platforms, Dhwani the head girl. Those are probably just some responses that were recorded when I asked my colleagues and students about how would they describe Dhwani. Well to sum it up, Dhwani Garg is a young, enterprising student who believes in excelling with her commitment and sincerity and impresses with her humility. Today, as Dhwani makes it to the Ivy League Howard University, it is a matter of great pride for us at Alper International School and we extend our blessings and wishes to her. I am sure all of us are waiting to hear our talk and without any further ado, I hand it over to yet another Ivy League graduate from Carmel University, Anansh Prasad, a much cherished member of the Alper family. Over to you Anansh and we look forward to this chat show. Thank you so much Sugandha ma'am, Dr. Amrita, Mr. and Mrs. Garg and of course the star of today's show, Dhwani who has done everybody, not only at EIS but also in the city, the state and across the country, very proud. Getting into Howard University as anybody would probably realize as soon as you go on to Google is probably a one in a hundred, one in a thousand, one in a lakh acceptance rate when it comes to places from India. So it's definitely a huge, huge achievement and something that is the beginning of another wonderful process but something at this point in time which we're just going to really, really cherish, celebrate and we're going to speak to Dhwani about it of course. My name is Anansh Prasad and I'm really thankful for the opportunity once again at Skillshare education. We always get the opportunity to interact with wonderful students and luminaries at the Alpro International School in the Alpro International School fraternity and today is going to be no different. We are actually not going to simply talk about what Dhwani plans to do when she moves into Howard which is of course going to be a wonderful experience. I'm a firm believer in the fact and so is the EIS fraternity that the end is great but the means is even more important and the means is what is going to help all of you other students who I'm sure have already started idolizing Dhwani. She's raised the bar very high and I'm sure that if you aim for the moon probably you'll reach the stars. All right. I'll just flip the entire phrase over for everyone. So let's quickly move on to the start of the show for today Dhwani. Good morning. Would you like to say something to the audiences before we start off? Good morning everyone. I'm Dhwani as it has been mentioned. I am very grateful to be here today and I am really excited to share my journey with everyone here today and I really hope that everybody gained something from this interview and I'm able to help some aspiring students out there. Thank you so much Dhwani. Thank you so much and I'm sure you will be able to and we're just going to keep it a simple conversation and as candid as possible and I'm sure a lot of words of wisdom are going to come out from everybody involved in today's session. So Dhwani I'm actually a big believer and my role model is APJ Abdul Kalam and he has always said that dream, dream, dream, dreams transform into thoughts and thoughts into actions. So of course this action of getting into Harvard University is a brilliant achievement but I'm sure there were a lot of thoughts which we'll talk about a little later but let's start off the dream. Let's start off by speaking about the dream. Everybody dreams about certain achievements and of course getting into Harvard when you talk about getting into foreign universities is a gold standard. It's challenging but I'm sure it started off as a dream at some point in time. So I'd like to know Dhwani, what was the first time that you ever dreamt of applying or even getting into Harvard? There's actually a great question and you know how you spoke about dreams converting to thoughts and then into actions but you have your aspirations, dreams and then you have your realistic dreams. If I talk about my aspirations, dream of getting into Harvard I would say it's been that since I was very young because you hear all these university names being thrown around you know Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard but all of them seem so unattainable. You hold them at such a pedestal that you never think you can get into any of them but realistically speaking I think I visited Boston in 2019 and funny enough I was visiting Harvard and then also for me it was like a tourist destination you know I was just going around seeing what happened at Harvard and I had to travel to another place so I got into a cab and my cab driver was a Harvard student. He was working part-time as a cab driver and you know he just told me oh yeah I just I study at Harvard and I'm studying biochemistry with mythology and that was the first time I had met a real person who was studying at Harvard and I got to know their experience and you know that is when I kind of removed Harvard from the pedestal and I was able to look at it realistically and see okay there are students here studying subjects and different combinations of subjects and I think that was the first time I realistically thought of applying to Harvard and then I went into my research and I you know looked up what all I can do there and I think that is when it became my dream to apply to Harvard. So I'm supposing that cab interaction was one of the most enlightening experiences that you've probably had isn't it? It definitely was and I think I was very surprised that my cab driver is studying at Harvard which I realize is very common there because students get to work in so many different jobs and get so much different experience. So I think yeah that was that was one of the best interactions I've ever had. So I guess it's probably about finding inspiration and even some of the smallest things isn't it? That is very true exactly. I've been to Cambridge and it's a wonderful place to be and there is just such a bustling student fraternity there doing all kinds of things and I'm sure you'll really enjoy that experience. In fact moving on I want to ask you that you know you've been an EIS student for a very long time right from grade seven as Sugandha ma'am mentioned and I've had the good fortune of interacting with you at the closest quarters when it comes to many different events and competitions. You have held some of the most important student positions in school leadership positions and how have all these helped in molding you into the personality that you are today? I think you know so when you're applying to colleges one of the most important part is your interviews and contrary to popular belief your interviews are really not about anything factual or academic. It's mostly to see how you are as a person and I think you really come off as a leader and you come off as a strong personality if you've held leadership positions in the past which I have which really helped me a lot. If I talk about I was vice captain of my house right now I'm the head girl and you know president of the Indian Reformation Summit even something as small as the foreign exchange we had with whopping high last year and you know working with different kind of people you know communicating. I remember last year as the head girl when we organized the whole fundraiser and it was online so I really had to you know go that extra step to communicate with everyone effectively. I think those are the kind of experiences that really mold you and help you understand the perspectives of different people and put your point across properly decisively and effectively. Thank you so much for that Dhoni. I think that's a very very good pointer that you have shared for the entire EIS eternity. Academics of course at a school like EIS are brilliant but it goes beyond that when we talk about the level of extracurricular activities the exposure. She talked about many diverse experiences right from holding leadership positions to foreign exchange programs that have been furthered over the past few years of course and just simple things like even a fundraising event the process of developing confidence with respect to communication I'm sure that would help you even with the interview processes isn't it. Definitely it did because you know communicating online is not easy and if I did not have this past year's experience of communicating to different people in so many different events I don't think I would be able to communicate with even my interviewer you know I wouldn't be able to show them the kind of person I am so I think that was definitely did help me a lot. Absolutely absolutely in fact let's take this discussion forward just a little bit more as you know I'm a firm believer in the importance of academics of course but also in co-curricular and extracurricular activities. A school like EIS of course offers a plethora of opportunities and you have probably seized all of them with the openness arms possible if that was a term but can you actually share some of these activities that have helped you evolve if you would give a little more you know just a little more perspective I'm sure it'll help students a little bit more and the importance of other students also making the best use of such opportunities. Yeah definitely I think as you said I have really been very open with you know going for extracurricular activities and I do have friends who feel shy and I was one of those people who you know feel shy in giving auditions or even trying out if we talk about specific activities all throughout eighth ninth and tenth grade we had the real world challenges convention in Singapore and the number of events I took part in we had something we had a social entrepreneurship competition in which my friends and I developed a business plan to provide sustainable menstrual health care to rural women then we had something called turncoat which was something like a debate and you know you have your quality circle where you deal with real world challenges so these are the kind of competitions I've been to I remember we had an ad making competition as well and I am not someone who does a lot of video recording or a theater as well so I was very reluctant to go for it but some of the teachers really encouraged us to do it and we ended up winning the first prize on that as well so it's really I think it's more about risking it and going for it because one has nothing to lose the most you will get is exposure even in the 11th and 12th grade I remember we had the quest where Lord David Evans was here and one thing I really appreciate about the school is the kind of eminent professionals we get to meet uh Lord David Evans spoke about Brexit and you know he gave he gave a personal insight into what's happening in his own country and then we had uh chief chief guest eyes and his Peru last year and I had a great time interacting with him as well so I think getting all these different perspectives from people in different fields really helped me a lot and I was talking about the foreign exchange with whopping high I think at that time you know misinformation was spreading like wildfire and communicating with students from different countries and actually researching the economic environmental and medical aspects of COVID-19 helped me a lot and when we presented it it had other people as well so these were definitely activities that that really molded me into what I am and my advice to everyone is that you go for it go for the activities that you think you can do well in and it doesn't hurt to try truly the money in fact the last line that you stated is probably one of the most powerful lines it doesn't hurt to try and being an Ivy League graduate myself honestly speaking exposure and perspective are very important for anybody to achieve whatever they'd like especially at this age the level of exposure and perspective available during school times at a school like Elcro international school is uh in abundance there's just an abundance of these kinds of opportunities yes Dhoni do you want to say something I actually wanted to add something here I think there's a very common misconception among students that to get into an Ivy League you need like international competitions and you know big exposures you need to be solving global crises but that is actually not true at all what Ivy League or even any good college looks for is that people making the best of the opportunities they have making an impact within their community so it's just these small things that matter it doesn't have to be one big competition absolutely absolutely Dhoni I totally second you on this it's totally about making the most of your opportunities and learning and developing from each opportunity that you get it's not about the first second or third position it's actually about the takeaways and that's more important in life as a whole to learning and growing with each opportunity so making use of these opportunities to gain exposure to gain perspective not only help with these direct application processes but also with the overall development of students moving forward in life tomorrow when a student moves to a college like a Harvard University it's important for the student to have that level of confidence in himself or herself to be able to speak to any individual of any stature capacity or geography and these kinds of opportunities are so wonderfully available as a part of EIS at this point in time too so I really hope that students all a few students in grades 8 9 10 11 12 and even those in grade 3 whose parents are probably watching today's session take these opportunities to try and interact with these individuals there are multiple opportunities in different ways and you just have to try and make use of them so thank you so much for that question Dhoni we've talked a lot about co-curricular activities a lot about extracurricular activities let's move on to the elephant in the room which is very important it's academics all right academics at the end of the day have probably among the biggest roles to play when it comes to university application processes we'd like to know a little bit about your academic prowess in fact I myself don't know about your academic prowess Dhoni I'd love to know about your academic prowess over the years at EIS and how has teacher support contributed towards your overall university application I think a very important aspect of academics is consistency like it's not about studying for just one exam and getting marks in that one final exam that I think is the mentality for a lot of people it's mostly about maintaining consistent scores and you know just understanding things over a long period of time which is what even colleges appreciate and I think what I really liked about myself was that so one of the subjects that I applied for was economics but I don't have economics or even political science in school and you know you have advanced placement exams every year which so last year what I tried to do was I applied for the micro and the macroeconomic advanced placement and I studied for them on my own I ended up not giving them because of the COVID-19 situation but I did study for them and they really helped me understand economics as a whole which is why I ended up deciding to apply for it in the first place so I think it is important that outside of school people explore academics on their own as well I also took a summer course with Columbia University on big data and data analysis so you know data analysis, mathematics, economics these are all very correlated fields so the entire purpose behind this was for me to understand at the university level how would academics be for me right so I think that is how I have maintained my academics throughout the throughout my high school and as for speaking about teacher support I think my teachers are some of the best I could have asked for I'll be honest after the 10th grade I had I had considered leaving school for you know IB because I thought it would be better for applying abroad but I am and I stayed in this school because I had so much trust in my teachers I really wanted the teachers I already had in 11th and 12th which is why I stayed and I am so glad I made that decision because the school has helped me so much especially this COVID year all the online classes being available at any time possible has been great and I think you know I'll actually talk about this so in biology class we have a lot of debates we had this one very significant debate on saltation versus gradualism and my teacher had mentioned it in my letter of recommendation as well and my interview was so impressed with that she asked me about that entire debate you know so it my teacher provided me with an element to talk about in the interview so I think overall the teachers here are great and I really appreciate all their support. Absolutely Dhoni thank you so much I think that's a wonderful tribute for you to pay to your teachers and I'm sure all of them who are watching you live this morning time have a very big smile on their faces end to end and I'm sure you're going to continue doing everybody proud. Dhoni you know let's move on to another aspect of applications so when we talk about applications for foreign universities typically what tends to happen is that there is a it is a slightly longish process if I might call it that there are different stages to it of course we start off with a sat and I think a tofu as well and from there on we move into the entire process of SOPs extended essays letters of recommendation and then interviews so could you please run our friends who are watching today's dive through the entire process and how did you actually deal with each part of the process when did you start I'll leave this question a little open-ended for you so that you can probably structure it the way you like but if you could cover this coming from a student's perspective is easier I can tell everybody how this works theoretically and otherwise but we love to know how what were the different challenges that you probably faced what were the different achievements through this process and how of course this entire process is not simply about getting into a university it's about getting your university ready could you please cover some of these aspects for us yeah definitely so I think it goes without saying that you don't start applying to universities exactly six months earlier something you have to start preparing for them at least two three years in advance where you do your extracurriculars and build your profile but coming to the actual process of applying to colleges I personally started in the month of September okay no actually I started in the 11th grade where I started preparing for my SAT and ACT I ended up giving both the ACT and my ACT so I think most students aim for a 1500 on the SAT and like a 33 to 36 in the ACT because that's the highest scores that you can get and I just want to I just want students to know I have seen a lot of people get like a 1550 in the SAT and still go and give it again because they want a 1600 because they think they can't get into an IV league without that I just want students to know that that is not true once you reach an academic threshold like a 1500 or a 33 the university will go ahead and look at your other parts of the application so I don't think students should be you know giving the SAT or the ACT again and again so that's there so start in the 11th grade. Let me just leave you there Dhoni I'm so sorry because there are a bunch of questions with regard to this what was your SAT score Dhoni what was your ACT score these are obvious questions that I was sure to expect so why don't you go ahead and share this before we move on. Okay I gave my SAT in the 11th grade for which I did not prepare at all so I got a 14-13 and in the 12th grade because of COVID all the SAT exams got cancelled so I ended up going for the ACT to Mumbai and I got a 34 on my ACT. Alright she got a 34 on her ACT a 14-30 which honestly speaking if you go through a lot of university blogs a lot of blogs that exist you know there's a lot of unfiltered information with respect to application processes that exist online students as well as parents as well as and there are a lot of counselors as well who'd probably say that without a 1500 on 1600 you should not be applying for an Ivy League or otherwise please don't go by all of these references it's not simply about your SAT scores 14-30 is a great score by the way it's a fabulous score but well you know there are people who also have 15-50s and don't get into these unis it's about the entire package it's the entire process that goes into it some of the opportunities that Vani has seasoned the past as well as the entire process of interviews and otherwise so 14-30 is a great score 1500 is a great score that's just one small part of the entire application process and ACT score of 34 is brilliant too but once again there are people who are going to tell you that you need at least a 36 so well that's not the way it works it's really about the entire process associated with it go on Vani I'm sorry I just wanted to interject yeah and just for clarity I ended up not submitting my ACT score I ended up submitting the best score which was my ACT score because the 34 translates to close to 15-30 in SAT so yeah just for the students out there then coming so once you have your SAT and ACT if you're if you're a US citizen or any citizen of any country where the native language is English you don't need TOEFL but personally as an Indian citizen I did require TOEFL so I gave the TOEFL my score was 118 or 120 so most universities would ask for 100 plus in the TOEFL and it's pretty easy to get it's just if you know how to converse in English and you've studied English your entire life it's pretty it's pretty easy to give the TOEFL then moving on to the actual application process I started around September the first thing I did was inform our school counselor and my teachers for the recommendation letters because I wanted to give them enough time to write the letters okay coming to a very important thing I think students should apply early to colleges most students I feel like they wait till the regular decision cycle which the deadline for which is around 1st January to apply but I really think that students should be applying early I'll give you all you know evidence for this in my experience Harvard was the only Ivy League I applied to early and it's only possible to apply to one like Harvard has something called restrictive early action so you cannot apply to other private universities early and I applied to all the other Ivy Leagues in the regular decision this year being a COVID year and a test option year there was around a 50 to 60 increase in applications and I really I really feel that I got an edge in Harvard because in the early round there were lesser people so they got a chance to evaluate my application properly I ended up getting two interviews which is extremely rare most people just get one single interview so apply early to the school that you think you would be the best fit to which is my advice to everyone which is why you start in September absolutely in fact it applies to life in general I'm sure when we talk about board examinations for grades 10 grades 12 everybody says please start the process early it's about the process more than the end result you know the end result follows the process and especially with university applications you definitely need to start early because it's not simply about your SAT score about your ACT scores it's really about the entire package you know you need to build your profile up and don't build it up to get into a university build it up to build yourself up and I think I can say that with utmost conviction Dhvani tried to build herself up as a personality which has culminated in her wonderful achievement that all of us are celebrating today so let's move on Dhvani let's move on from the ACT we started talking about the letters of recommendation and I think the statements of purpose how did you go about that process yeah so for the letters of recommendation what I would suggest to students is that they make a document of all their extracurriculars of all their achievements that they think that the teacher that their teacher should mention in the LOR obviously the teachers would have something else to mention as well but it's always good to put things that you would like in your letters so have a document ready and send it to all the teachers so they can you know start the process early and post that coming to the very important thing which is your common app application common app personal essay so the personal essay has eight prompts in the common app or you can choose any prompt of your own it's very flexible and so what so one of the the prompt that I chose was a lot of people have a background which is very important for them the city their ethnicity country something like that and how has it shaped you as a person so personally what I talked about was my life in a small city called Jamshedpur and then when I moved to Pune and I you know I named it a tale of two cities and I talked about how my experiences were very different in both the cities and how they've shaped me into the person I am and a very important thing to know about personal essays is that no matter how much you edit them you will never like them I think this is something everybody needs to know you will never be satisfied but you have to realize at what point you have to stop because at the point you keep editing them and then you just make them worse so start around early September write a couple of rough drafts and then start finalizing them and I think it's very important to mention here that don't try to do this process alone keep taking feedback from other people show it to your parents show it to your friends and you know why this is important because I had come to I think there was a word limit of 650 words and I was stuck at close to 680 words and I just could not get it down to 650 because when you've written something you don't know how to cut it short and I sent it to one of my friends who was also applying to college and she cut it down for me to 650 words and I think this is that kind of help you need you need the people around you to be with you in this process so I would suggest everyone to do that. In fact how much time did you take with this entire process of the LORs and SOPs and the essays? So for the Harvard was the only application I submitted early so I would say I spent a good two months on the Harvard application alone but I ended up applying to 26 colleges so if you actually see the next two months for those 26 colleges were like three to four days per application. Right it's actually about setting the basic structure in place which takes the most amount of time probably will take you a month month and a half you know these essays are not simply about writing an essay which you're going to get graded on it's about the process of reflection so if you see the prompts that are provided it's actually about reflecting they're trying to actually peep into the students personality the students character more than anything else and it automatically comes in when you start writing these kinds of essays and it takes time it takes time to reflect put your thoughts down develop constructs and then put them onto a paper then get them edited to a point where it meets the word limits and your satisfaction so it's definitely important to take time with this it's not something a lot of students think that you know what I'll not study for anything else for the next five days and I'll try and finish this that's probably one of the worst ways to actually complete these essays you know even help with drafting letters of recommendation which your school teachers and other people would give you it's important to spend time on this process which is what probably Dhoni did and once time was spent on the Harvard application which was an early application was an early submit is what she has mentioned it became a much more cookie cutter mechanism for all the other colleges because everybody has similar questions essays that need to be written it's just about reframing them and drafting them to the word limits isn't it Dhoni? Yeah also talking about the personal essay I think more than writing it it's about thinking which incidents you want to write about I think I started thinking around May June about what I will write exactly and I thought of the small incidents in both the cities that I would like to mention so I think it's more about reflecting rather than the writing itself if you know what you want to convey and what incidents you want to mention it becomes much easier to write. Absolutely so in fact I'd like to ask you at this point in time Dhoni this was my next question but let's put this into the process because we are running through the application process now did you seek help externally who did you seek help from you of course I've talked about your parents you've talked about your friends I'm sure the school did you seek any specific help in order to get this process done? Not really I did not have an external college counselor or a consulting agency I kind of just did the research on my own I looked up the majors that I liked I looked up the colleges which are good for the majors I look at rankings class sizes professors you know you have all these college fairs that the colleges hold virtual fairs so I attended a few of them I saw what the students had to say about the community the research and I kind of based my list on that and honestly speaking coming to the actual process the actual process is very easy I think it looks very difficult from the outside but once you get the hang of it it's not that hard you can do it on your own. Absolutely absolutely in fact I'd like to shed a little more light on this entire aspect you know there's just too much information okay there's a Netflix show called the college admissions scandal that has come in as well a lot of you students in grades 11 and 12 have been watching this have my students have come to me and talked to me about this college admissions scandal thing on Netflix please don't watch these things in order to you know you know skew your perspective there are certain things that happen with every university across the world even in India and otherwise but honestly this has nothing to do with your application process and don't use it as an excuse or anything else to actually in any way color your thought process which will allow you to work a little less or a little bit too much on your applications okay it's just about it's actually a journey with yourself all right there's too much information that exists with university applications it's honestly speaking a huge industry as well and there are many people who tell you many different things honestly when you start talking to your friends you know I'm going to come to that question as well Dhwani where there are people who say how are you how are you even thinking of applying to a university like Harvard I mean please please think think clearly please put your dreams or think to a point where you can actually achieve something that people are going to say all kinds of things to you but please just follow your instincts follow you know what you would like to aspire for and start working towards it as early as grade 11 I'm sure you're going to achieve these things nothing is unachievable just because you know you belong to a school in Pune this is a great school it's a global school in fact I believe there is also an IB division which has received approval very soon so there's a wonderful CPSC section an IB section and everything else on offer for all of your students please do not think that anything cannot be achieved Dhwani has in fact gotten to Harvard this is a gold standard for anybody when it comes to foreign university applications so Dhwani I would like to ask you how much of unsolicited advice do you receive and how much of you know stuff that you read on the internet seems like fiction now it's very important students because students go about this they'll ask a bunch of questions and I've received a lot of questions very recently which you know I am always happy to quell you know I'm always happy to quell misconceptions because a lot of these end up in ensuring students don't apply yeah I agree I agree I'll actually start with that so coming to personally my friends that you say some people would say how can you think of applying to Harvard I am grateful no one ever said that to me everybody was very supportive all my friends generally believed I could get into Harvard and they were always like I think which was very helpful I'm really glad for that but coming to the internet okay I'll give you one example so Harvard has a supplemental essay and one of the forms is give a list of the books you've read in the past year and you know all these college websites kind of tell you how you should write essays so I looked up on two three websites and all of them gave me the same advice that you should show progression of thought you know you start with a basic book of economics and then you move on to more advanced books and you should write something like that and I genuinely did not think how that would make sense considering no person would read books on the same topic the entire year so I just ended up not listening to that advice and I just wrote a general list of books from different genres fiction non-fiction everything and I ended up submitting that and my admissions counselor loved that list she told me I have a beautiful list of books and I and she actually recommended more books to me so all I'm saying is all these college websites they give their own perspective but you should do what you think would be the best for your application and what puts you across the best in your essays and even the college admissions scandal documentary I do suggest students to not watch it simply because it's very demotivating they've constantly made it look like you need a 36 on your acd you need high scores to get in and they've also made it look like only people who have a lot of money and can bribe colleges can get in which is so not true I have met people in my Harvard college group who come from diverse backgrounds low-income backgrounds different ethnicities so it's not true that you need money to get into good colleges absolutely absolutely one thing we are sure about now is that you've not bribed anybody either on a lighter note and you've gotten on your own of course academic prowess which is great lot of information available on the internet please don't go in for cookie cutter applications is what I'd say these are cookie cutter applications that you know a lot of people and even the internet would suggest you know do things this way that way do things for yourself and then you can work on defining them that's the process Dhvani has mentioned she's gone about she's of course had a general counselor I believe from school and of course her parents and everybody else who has helped her with the process and then she's gone about getting into Harvard without any major external help which is once again kudos to you Dhvani and your entire support system yeah all right Dhvani so um when it came to the interview process the last part that we want to talk about the interview process how did you go about approaching it what are the experiences in the past have that helped you gain confidence for your interviews um so my first interview was with an alumni he was the MD of Bain Capital in Boston and so basically the alumni interview never has your application okay so they only have your name and that's it they come up with they come up with questions that are general and they ask you about them so he asked me about you know what is the hardest challenge I've faced in my life and my extracurriculars what I have done what I like doing in my free time how the COVID year has been he asked me things specific to leadership positions what is my favorite leadership position till now and basically these so in the common app they never ask you for certificates or any kind of proof of all the activities you list these interviews basically serve as a means of knowing the person behind the paper if you have done something you will be able to put across the experience as well when you're giving an interview it is very important that you don't talk about your achievements I wouldn't say oh yeah I did this and I got a first try to know I have to talk about the process behind it I talked about how I approach people while making a project how I worked with the team what were some of the hardships I faced so those are the kind of experiences they're looking for to understand that you actually did the activities you're talking about absolutely so it's really about internalizing and expressing whatever you have done so actually the journey to how it doesn't start off with your application process it starts way way way before that in fact you'll realize that when you start writing the essays for your personal essays for a university like Harvard too yeah true and also I think this is something we had a whole we had 280 events by Harvard last week online events and in a lot of those events what you know all the counselors and teachers tell you is that once you come to university you are going to get the education everybody in that university is going to get the same education so at a point it doesn't become about what you know it becomes about who you know you should be able to communicate and network with people and you know package yourself and sell yourself to them telling them that you are capable of something which is why in an interview they look for people who can do that totally totally the 21st century skill development is extremely important as as they always mention in fact an interesting fact that I've read about recently is how 21st century skills are probably getting more and more immortal you know hard skills keep dying every 10 years but skills like communication critical thinking your ability to correlate different things are what are going to hold you in good stead and especially with interview processes thank you so much Dhoni for sharing your perspective on so many different things with respect to the entire interview process with respect to the application process you know it's definitely going to be a beautiful journey moving forward this is just the beginning and I'm sure you're going to keep achieving keep making us proud and bringing end to end smiles on everybody's faces as you move into Harvard University you live in those legendary dorms and then you know probably become an even better better and a best version of yourself but you know at this point in time too these are probably your last few months at Elpro International you've been a student a very proud student and we've all been very proud of you me as a member of the external extended family at Elpro has also had the opportunity of speaking to you so much you know one of the things that you're going to miss about this school I think I'm going to miss all of it first of all I'm going to miss my 12th grade year not spending it in school but mostly I think more than the school I'm going to miss the people I'm going to miss my friends I'm going to miss the teachers I'm going to miss the cafeteria where we spent so much time the library which is one of my favorite places the labs I was so happy to visit the labs last month I think I would just miss the school as a whole because I've made so many memories here throughout the past six years absolutely absolutely I know and I've seen you all over the place Dhwani like coming to that let's let's take move things to a slightly lighter note now right what I'm going to do with you Dhwani now that we have spoken about different aspects of your application process we have understood the process that you followed starting from grade 11 itself and it's starting way before that but the formal process starting from grade 11 how you move through the ACT the SAT the personal essays the LOR processes and then on to your interviews and how your ability to express communicate more than anything else helped you with the interviews it was not simply about preparing a bunch of questions that you could answer and rehearsing them it's about also being very candid we talked about all of those things we talked about the importance of your co-curricular exposure and the different activities right from the fundraising initiatives to the leadership positions that you have helped to interviews to events like quest where you've got to speak to dignitaries like Lord David Evans all of these how did they actually help into molding you your academic prowess we've spoken about so many different things and of course the fact that you have dreamt about going into Howard and how one interaction with a cab driver who was a Howard student also helped in inspiring you so much more talked about all of these different things and I'm sure there's so many key takeaways for everybody who's listening to you let's move things to a lighter note now let's have a fun rapid fire with you Dhwani this is not you know the prototypical rapid fire that you are used to seeing some of our audience members on TV gonna have a small simple rapid fire we're gonna ask questions to Dhwani on a slightly lighter note slightly lighter note about your experiences in school and Dhwani please be a little explicit about the mischief that you have done because you know with all of this wonderful academic prowess and this achievement you've also been one of the students who's had a fun in school and I know that so let's share this so that everybody gets to see the 360 side of you 360 degree side of you all right so let's do this Dhwani I'm going to ask you questions and answer them at the earliest okay don't put in too much of thought into it so let's quickly start off with this rapid fire ready all right Dhwani the one experience at EIS that you will never forget I would say melange I really I remember we used to so during classes you get volunteer passes and we used to go down watch the events and I remember they used to repeat the stories during melange so I think that was my experience I really loved great I'm hoping we get to get back to those offline versions of melange very soon as well of course we have the online versions which are working till then well the most mischievous thing that you have done at school be honest now nobody is going to do anything to you I guess by now I'm guessing there are a lot because okay back in I think back in the eighth grade one time my friends and I bunked the hobby club period and we were sitting in the cafeteria the entire time and we got into a lot of trouble for that so they can't they can't put you in trouble again for it but I think that was I think that was the most mischievous thing I've done in all of high school students please don't do that all right what was going on in your mind before you opened the application status window to check if you had received the admit to how odd I was actually on the floor crying because before that I opened four IV decisions and all four of them were rejects so I genuinely didn't think I would get into Harvard I had lost hope at that point wonderful one great perspective for everybody so then when you opened it and you realized you got in then what happened I mean did you believe it or did you recheck it four times I was on video calls with my sister and she doesn't live here she lives in the US and I think I just looked at it and you know she wasn't able to understand what my reaction is she's like what happened tell me tell me what is it a reject and then I just screamed and it was like four in the morning and my parents came also I didn't tell them that IV decisions were coming that day so they didn't know that the decisions are coming so I screamed and they thought something happened so they came running into my room I think it was just a lot of crying at that time I'm sure a lot of happiness I'm sure a lot of happiness and you know it's a great achievement so I'm sure you had a wonderful time after that and I'm sure the phone didn't stop ringing post that didn't yeah it definitely didn't and I think I missed a lot of calls that day because I was I just couldn't process it a process that I was in such a frenzy but yeah I really got the support of a lot of people that was great I'm glad I'm glad I'm glad you answered my call though all right let's quickly move on your favorite hangout spot in school bio lab I really love that place because it's only like 19 of us right so the lab feels very personal and we end up spending a lot of place there a lot of time there and till last year we used to do slide making so I remember even during free period some of my friends and I used to go and cut stems and do slide making I think I really just have a lot of fun in that lab brilliant brilliant your simple message to the students of EIS simple short and sweet okay this might not be very short but it's there yeah that I was interested in a lot of subjects you know I like bio I like eco I like fall science and I could not decide what I wanted to study and I heard this a lot that oh you're in 12th grade by now you should know my advice to everybody is it's okay to not know what you're studying it's okay to take your time to understand and don't let anyone tell you that you know you shouldn't be undecided at the stage in your life so really thank you so much that's a very powerful message in fact lastly what's your biggest achievement as a student at EIS I think it could be the you know the connect I could name a lot of awards and things but I think it would be the connection to people I I'm in touch with my juniors my classmates my seniors the teachers and I'm on good terms with all of them so I think that would be what I count the most biggest achievement biggest achievement is basically utilizing this wonderful ecosystem then and being an integral part of it isn't it and I think that's something very powerful once again for all of your students for all of your students as well as parents who are watching it's important to be a part of the ecosystem in every which way possible with this let's quickly move on now to the ask me anything section we have asked a lot of questions directly to the money which I'm sure have addressed a lot of queries that have come in on you know the entire youtube chat there are a bunch of questions that are coming in and I'm going to try and ask you some of them I'm sorry audience members if I'm not able to address all of them but let's quickly ask a few of these questions let's start off with some of the basic questions did you appear for IELTS TOEFL one year's already answered that but the question is where and how did you appear for these exams so right now TOEFL is online which is great everyone can give it online when I gave it it wasn't online so I had to go to a center in Pune I don't remember which it was a normal offline exam all right all right I guess that also addresses the question with regard to SAT did you give it in some center in Pune or in Bombay? SAT I gave in Pune and ACP I gave in Bombay all right all right did your school help you to participate in these competitions that you are mentioning I think it's all about the different activities yeah definitely I think okay I actually forgot to mention a very important point you know the common application this year added a covid section and they asked us tell us about covid that's all you can talk about hardships you can talk about what you've done over the years and I talked to a lot of students and they did not have much to write there they didn't know what to write in the covid section but I had so much to write because we did we had so many events throughout the year in school and you know people people's profiles became weak over covid because they couldn't have those extracurriculars whereas mine didn't so I think it was I would really give it to the school for you know for me being productive throughout the covid year absolutely any specific question that's come in honestly I'm not sure how Dhoni would be able to answer this in totality but please provide your student perspective on this question has come in I want to major in economics and finance and minor and do minors in computer science any suggestion Dhoni in fact at this point in time I want you to mention what is your major have you picked a major before getting to Harvard so in the application they only asked you to put any three subjects that you might like to study so I put bio math and economics and in most Harvard has something called a liberal arts curriculum which is very common in a lot of colleges in the US where your first year you can take as many classes as you want and depending on what you like you have to declare your major in your second year which is what I'm planning to do and yeah coming back to the question it was finance and economics and a minor in computer science that's a great question I cannot decide your colleges for you you have to do your own research because you know all colleges are different they have for me personally for in Harvard I was behind Professor Amartya Sen I have idolized him for the longest time and I cannot wait to be in his class but there might be some other professor who's research you like or who's work you like so look at the research look at class sizes look at finances which is extremely important and then decide your schools from from just a general overview I can tell them tell you for computer science economics and finance Harvard would be amazing NYU would be amazing Columbia would be great so but it really comes down to what where you fit the best absolutely absolutely it's you know Harvard one thing I can tell you for sure is Harvard is definitely you know the most prestigious university in the world but it's not necessarily the best university for every major that you'd like to go in for okay it's always very relative a lot of these things are very relative and I can tell you that once you go to your university if I'm from Cornell I'd like to make you believe that Cornell is better than Harvard so it's always about these kinds of cases please please check out the universities I'd like to apply for of course Harvard is a gold standard huge achievement but like Dhvani said it's always about checking whether you know you could relate to the university when you checked its videos out when you check the work the professors are doing all of this is important but more importantly Dhvani has not picked her major and that's something that a lot of students don't do when they go in for the undergraduate undergraduate degrees it's not necessary to pick your major you can just mention the subjects that you're interested in pursuing you'd realize that at the end of the first year your perspective might totally change and you might decide to do a completely different major from what you had probably signed up for initially when you thought about it in your mind so it's important to leave things open ended luckily these undergraduate colleges do give you the opportunity to do that and Dhvani I'm glad you're doing that as well all right so there was a question about which course are you taking at Harvard I think that question has already been addressed Dhvani can you talk about the financial aid scholarship and loans did you receive any loans financial aid are you pursuing something so basically colleges have two kinds of aid which is merit scholarship and need-based aid I applied only for merit scholarships I ended up not applying for need-based aid because I don't need the requirements for it most colleges put on their website what your annual income and everything should be and I think a great resource over here is a lot of colleges have something called a financial aid calculator and it is very very accurate I would suggest everyone to check that out where you put in the income assets and everything it's a long questionnaire but then they give you the aid which is very accurate so you can determine if you can afford it or not basically at Harvard I don't have any aid because they don't give merit scholarships and I did not qualify for need-based aid I did get merit scholarship in a lot of other colleges I applied to absolutely absolutely thank you so much for that Dhvani totally depends it's something that you know takes a little bit of work frankly when it when you talk about aid from universities to an extent it's capped for citizens who are not US citizens you know so it's a little bit of a concept you can go about looking for aid externally too there are a lot of different foundations within India that offer it to and I'm sure there would be a lot of information available about this as well all right thank you so much for that answer Dhvani one last question and this ask me anything that's coming from the audiences which I'd like to ask you is now that you have gotten into your dream college how do you feel I think it feels I think for the longest time I idolized Harvard so much and now that I'm already in there it feels very normal it feels very average but you know I'm not in a bad way I wouldn't say that in a bad way say that in the best way possible because I will I always had this fear of fitting in you know once I got in that entire day all I could think of was what if they made a mistake what if I wasn't meant to go to Harvard and but also our last week when I got to talk to the professor the students I realized it's a very normal place with normal people you know and this is very important for students to realize because most people just think of oh Bill Gates went to Harvard undergrad Mark Zuckerberg was there but those were two people in a batch of over 1500 students there were those other 1500 students who were also there so I think that is my perspective now that I have to do best within the student community I get at Harvard absolutely absolutely in fact it's about making yourself the best version of yourself more than anything else and no I'm glad that you're looking at it this way because now you're starting to recalibrate and look at doing even bigger and better things in a fraternity that's extremely extremely diverse isn't it that's true also I would like to add something about the application process here which I forgot to mention earlier Harvard was my first application and it was the most raw and honest application I'd written right and then in the regular round when I applied to all the other IVs you know by that time I had gotten into the college mindset I looked up videos of people who got in and I kind of I think they're doing this but I kind of reverse engineered my application to fit that particular college and as now everyone knows I got rejected from all other IVs I applied to other than Harvard so I really think you should be honest please be honest on your application and just don't try to manipulate it for any college in fact I'd like to second what you're saying and just resonate this too much information is really bad okay please don't go about searching for too much information first when you see a university application fill it up for yourself then you can go about refining it but don't reverse engineer it Dhvani in fact is testament to this she's just mentioned that some of the other IVs she applied to she wasn't able to get into like the name of you Dhvani this is for everybody's reference yeah I applied to Princeton, Columbia, Yale and Dartmouth Princeton, Columbia, Yale and Dartmouth great colleges once again all right Dhvani thank you so much I think these are all the questions that we have gotten and is there anything that you'd like to say on a parting note before we move on to two other very important stars in today's show I would just say I would just say that write your applications honestly you know be prepared in advance and don't be anxious I think the entire time all throughout the application process I was very anxious and I could not spend those last six months of high school properly so I would say don't do that take your time and it'll all go well and if anyone ever needs help they can contact me thank you so much thank you so much Dhvani Dhvani with this we are going to take a pause with respect to interacting with you for a little bit because as I mentioned we need to talk to two other very important stars in the show and two stars who I'm sure all the parents want to hear from as well Mr. and Mrs. Garg Mr. Deepak Garg Mrs. Chavi Garg uh good morning sir good morning ma'am good morning sir ma'am I'm going to start off by asking you the most inevitable question how do you feel as extremely proud parents of an extremely competent and wonderfully brought up child we are over the moon and it took almost a week to sink in that Dhvani is in Harvard now it was a lifelong dream to be there and yeah it took time to sink in actually we are very happy and very proud of our daughters and you surely must be and should be and I'm so glad to hear about this sir ma'am just a few questions uh you know Dhvani has been a student of Elkru International School for I believe six years now from grade seven onwards and I believe that the school has left an indelible mark on a lot of aspects of her life would you like to shed some light on this as parents what has the yeah I would definitely say that school has helped her a lot school actually she was jack of many trades and school actually owned her individual interest and her capability to her next level teachers helped her a lot she went to Singapore three four times and all the teachers they encouraged her and guide her to participate in different competitions and that helped her a lot to for her overall achievement overall development along with the academics so definitely a school played a very important role in developing her overall this thing I must also add one thing that I have seen teachers working very hard with the students so you know I didn't see them relaxing any time during the COVID so it's like you know all the hectic classes you know supporting the students and I think I saw a lot of communication happening even in late hours and the teachers working really hard with the students so I have seen that personally you know all these years so I think school has a very big role to play not just for academics but beyond academics I would say that they have groomed the students as I think Dhani has gained immensely from that thank you so much for that answer sir and ma'am in fact to deal on this particular question since we are talking about COVID this time was a rather testing time and continues to be a very testing time I hope everybody is staying safe and keeping safe during these testing times but during these testing times Dhani has gone through an entire application process over the duration of COVID and a lot of students would probably be applying even in this year where the times are slightly dreary it's difficult to keep students motivated in such circumstances you know everything has changed all of a sudden especially in the case of Dhani where you know the application process would probably have been a little more arduous in some ways logistically what did you all do as parents to make sure that you know Dhani stayed motivated of course she's a very motivated individual but what can parents do in general to make sure that you know in your opinion students stay motivated and focused on these larger goals in a time which we hope passes by very soon. Actually I think communication between the child and parents is very important that you keep talking to your child what she thinks and how you can help her in means sometime a diversion is also needed from the academics so on in during these COVID times when so much of what you can say depressing times it's important to keep your environment light and means to I think what we also did I think she did a lot I would say because I was really busy you know handling work with my company but I think Chhavi worked very hard with her she would also digress sometimes from her academics to you know some new recipes she loves Italian food and she keeps trying a lot of new recipes so she would get some you know new stuff which I the raw materials I even I have never heard of and they would bring in those raw materials and then he would try all that and you know also yeah just to be stress and then also on the application I think we worked she worked very hard I would say that because two months of first application it was very raw she would say it's still not looking good it's still not I want to I have so you know I trading it multiple times and then I think that was a lot of hard work but one thing is yes it was all from the heart and the truth not you know just writing something which you didn't do so I think that's that's something which was a great thing and also I think she has a good writing skills so this time I think we also encourage her to write some poetry so some poetry she writes so if there is some birthday or some event in the family we I would always request her that please write something you know so that we can share it with our family so she did that also during these times and of course her friends were always there to you know they keep coming in or whatever in small groups they you know kept meeting thank you so much sir thank you so much few more things we are learning about bhani somebody who's very interested in learning new recipes especially italian yes she's a big foodie actually big foodie big foodie it's not simply about the academic processes co-curricular activities and everything just with a single focused mind on trying to get into university all of these distractions not distractions constructive this is distressing from the hard this thing as they say all work and no play mix trailer so it's very important to make sure that there is a lot more activity taking place and I'm so glad as parents you've provided that kind of event a de-stressor for the money I'm sure that's something that all parents can also learn from sir ma'am a couple of other questions talking about advice talking about you know suggestions what is some advice and a set of suggestions that you'd like to give to all the aspiring students and their parents at EIS as well as the larger community in Pune you know we keep talking about EIS but this is a YouTube video for the larger fraternity in Pune that we hope gets inspired by the money's achievement and the processes well I think first thing I would I think today's students or children are quite independent I would say and I think we gave her that freedom so I think we need to give our children that freedom to work to learn and also to participate wherever they feel like so I think that is the most important thing I think today's next gen or gen next is quite capable quite intelligent and is is mature enough to take their own decisions I think we can just be their guide or mentor just that you know they don't get into some wrong things but I think they are quite capable quite mature enough today to take their own decisions so I think that freedom for them to take their own decisions is very very important second thing is I think not just academics we all need to encourage our children to go beyond academics so they may have some hobbies I think we all need to promote or we need to encourage them to pursue their hobbies wherever possible because this is something which you know you we call it stress in academics so we have heard you know many great people talking about it so I think that also is very important encouraging them to pursue their own hobbies and passions so these are some of the things which I would suggest to to the to the children and also for you know children as well that I think the institution which brought you up here you should always remain with that institution so I think you are an alumni of Elpro here some of the children may have been alumni elsewhere in the past but I think and future also they will be alumni of some institution I think we should not forget our institution. Certainly your roots are very important and I can totally second you know there's so many things that you know when you students go to university and start doing you'll realize the impact that your alma mater has had on me you know she's been a TEDx speaker as well at Elpro she's delivered so many other wonderful speeches held different positions all of these things are going to hold her in good stead when she wants to probably apply even for the Harvard graduate undergrad student council which we were talking about on a lighter note the other day I already told her that I already encouraged her for that that we start seeing how to how to get into that absolutely we are having a conversation on the on a lighter note my sister's actually in the graduate graduate student at Harvard right now as well just applied for the graduate council we were sitting and talking about it and I'm sure Dhoni will do us proud very soon she told us that yeah all right so ma'am before we conclude our brief interaction with you is there any message that you'd like to give on a parting note to the EIS teachers the academic team the entire staff at EIS I'm sure they'd like to hear from you okay I think first thing I would like to compliment all the teachers and of course Madam Amrita Vora for leading this institution and I think I really compliment the teachers the way they have been working with the students I think their personal involvement and commitment is I just I can't even think of you know this kind of an involvement and commitment that the teachers have and I would like to thank them personally for this at least for Dhoni I think going forward ELPO is a very is a great institution and I think it has been built on a very strong foundation so I'm sure you know teachers the way they are working I think they have also molded themselves to the digital world today with all this chaos going on and I don't see I even you know I tried talking to Dhoni about the exams being taken online and she says me no no there is no way I can change you know I can do something here and there so I think that is what you know the institution has brought about and I think it's all because of the teachers so thanks to all of you and I think going forward I can see many more talents from ELPRO going to such great universities I only hope that all this talent that ELPRO is contributing can come back and contribute to the country in future that's that's something which I would volunteer for I would be vocal for local I would say in this in this case at least so that's something which we as a country need in future so I keep telling even Dhoni but finally as I told you you know it's our freedom to make our own choices of the kids make absolutely absolutely ma'am and sir very powerful message I'm also a very big believer in this whole brain drain culture you know avoiding the brain drain culture as we call it where students actually of course wonderful students extremely academically oriented and intellectually steered students of course study in foreign universities and of course settle there do us proud but you know doing something for the nation and the greater good of the nation is something that all of us aspire for I was glad that I got the opportunity to come back and of course it's totally up to Dhoni but I'm sure she'll take some decisions that will make us proud before we leave I would like to just send out a message to all the El Pro community and all the people who are joining us have joined us live that these are different times our country I think for the society I would urge everyone to please take precautions and stay safe I know there is a lot of stress in everybody's family but my request please stay safe and wish all of you you know smoother time going forward thank you so much thank you thank you so much chavi ma'am thank you so much Deepak sir an absolute pleasure to be speaking to both of you proud parents and I'm very very proud to have received the opportunity to speak to you and I'm sure all parents have provided a lot of different perspective a lot of perspective some of the key takeaways for me was the importance of allowing students to have independence in thought and decision-making processes which is ably guided which is ably guided by parents as well as support staff Dhoni was allowed to dream Dhoni was allowed to spread her wings which were then allowed which then her parents and teachers directed in the correct directions you know she's flown all the way to Harvard as a result so that's one thing another important thing is these stresses are important it's not always about studying studying studying especially in these testing times exploring different opportunities Deepak sir talked about how chavi ma'am made sure that Dhoni also pursued her passion for cooking she is also a poet so gandh ma'am make sure that we get to read some of her poetry too and beyond this of course the importance of making sure that there is 360 degree development taking place they talked about how El Pru International school has offered a plethora of opportunities the teachers have worked overtime it's been a hard time for everybody and especially I can tell you being from the educational fraternity I'm not a teacher in a school we run a soft skill development organization associated with so many schools but it's been a testing time for teachers parents I'm sure you'd be able to second that there is so much a work you know there are so many difficult times even personally but making sure that student growth keeps going on adapting to newer platforms it's taking time and I think teachers at this point in time are frontline workers who also deserve a huge round of applause and all the possible support that we can give them yes that's true so thank you so much sir and ma'am with this we would like to move to a silent and unassuming star in this entire show somebody who gives every student at El Pru International School all the wings that are possible to fly and looks at the entire process unfolding and always has a smile on a face very proudly throughout this entire process the director principal of El Pru International School Dr Amrita Vora who has been as Deepak sir and Chhavi ma'am have mentioned a very very indelible part a very very important part of this achievement for the money Dr. Amrita thank you so much for joining us this morning and of course I'd love to hear from you before that I'd also like to congratulate you and the entire El Pru fraternity on receiving the IB World School approval as well I believe the school is going to be starting off a very very I'm going to start off an IB World School division very soon isn't it that's right and yes we'll come to the IBDP bit but extremely extremely happy and superlatively proud of Dhoni's achievement it's a milestone for not only Dhoni but also for the school Harvard is Harvard I've done a few training courses there and what an amazing place to be in incidentally Dhoni my shuttle driver was also a Harvard student on a summer job so congratulations congratulations Amrita ma'am I'd like to ask you a few questions Dhoni's achievement has definitely been a watershed moment for the El Pru fraternity as a whole it's given more perspective we always keep pushing students to dream as big as possible now we have an example right in front of us which I'm sure a lot of students are going to take inspiration from and are going to try and emulate when we talk about Dhoni's entire journey through our times in school she's talked about so many different aspects of her development what is the larger message that you'd like to give students when we talk about Dhoni's achievement see I'll come to the message a little later first let me talk about Dhoni you know like how I have seen her in these years you know like her passion for learning amazing I would say you know like she wouldn't just kind of think of mastering content examination you know it's more about connecting dots and taking a deep dive into the actual aspect of learning you know I was so impressed by the projects and the discussions that she was into epigenetics, gene economics, community related services so she was almost into everything in fact my annual day report would be a lot about Dhoni and I was just kind of wondering that okay you know now what and definitely Amani assemblies all those metals that would go to her so she's been very very active you know very active in almost every aspect of learning school activities of course has been her forte ability to engage with her friends her peers she articulates very well very well and she's also a very good listener very open to accepting you know new ideas for sure a growth mindset and that is what we stand for and buy so you know I've seen her as a head girl as a house captain so leadership skills of course are very good a truly well rounded student I would say so you know like my appreciation absolutely absolutely ma'am in fact I'm sure you'd agree with me when I say that you know her getting into Harvard is just a culmination of all of the efforts that she's put in over the years at Elpro International in making herself the well-rounded individual that she is so in fact moving on now now now coming to your your question and and you know what what we draw out of her entire journey and my message to the students would be and and I think whatever we've heard today in the past one hour would kind of validate all of this that keep your focus in place be very very focused on what you want to achieve and then post that be very persistent there has to be resilience and as has been mentioned earlier make full use of the opportunities available because these opportunities are very unique they would be you know different for different institutions and these might turn out to be differentiators for you like for example Dhoni was a part of you know the prosthetic arm that we built for the 3d printing initiative now every school will not do that so that emerges as a differentiator for you so make the most of the opportunities that are available around you keep the fire alive for learning be a self-learner again Dhoni is a great example of that she was she was content writing for a law firm now how many students do that so you have to be the owner of your own learning don't just depend on you know what what somebody might just serve to you on a platter stretch boundaries stretch boundaries don't be complacent and think that I've done what I had to so continuously strive and try and have a good plan be in place Dhoni was just telling us that she applied to 26 colleges so when you have a plan be in place and you're not really kind of intent to hoax you're not very nervous when you're into your discussions with with the university that you want to go to so that gives you a different kind of a confidence so make sure that you have a good strong plan be in place and I would say work hard as an insurance saying dream big and the rest will follow that's just a byproduct success will come your way that is what I would I would want to you know tell my students thank you so much ma'am for that extremely powerful message it's a very powerful message you know just dream big the rest will follow if you do the right things which is what Dhoni has done there are a plethora of opportunities available I myself am personally well acquainted with so many opportunities that exist at Elbrough and I know that the ones that I'm involved with are just a fraction of the larger opportunities that exist in the areas of STEM and otherwise please try and make the most of these opportunities please try and explore these opportunities and then don't don't don't be scared of actually don't say that you can't do this and hence you know you just stay away from it the opportunities are there so that you can try them out so please make the most of all of these opportunities as ma'am mentioned a lot of these opportunities end up becoming differentiators at the end of the way everybody gives their board examinations and we are well aware about how you know 98 96 97 98 99 some of the top institutions in India are very common now so what the real differentiators are are things that go beyond this example the entire prosthetic arm project that Dhoni was a part of or the opportunities with respect to delivering a TEDx talk or being a part of the quest or Panjia or the model UN conferences or other STEM activities Melanesha is something Dhoni talked about there are so many such opportunities that existed Elbrough which ma'am and a team keeps trying to build on every time that I speak to ma'am ma'am is always wanting to explore different avenues and opportunities which will provide more value additions to students so ma'am I'd really like to respect you and you know commend you for that entire growth mindset for students and I'm sure that is one of the reasons that we see somebody like Dhoni ending up at Harvard today of course a lot of other efforts but just the exposure just the exposure and the perspective that speaking to a luminary like Lord David Evans or some of the others who are part of Panjia provided to students is something that cannot be replaced thank you ma'am my pleasure ma'am my pleasure to always be associated as a part of the Elbrough extended family ma'am just before we end this discussion is there any larger message that you'd like to give to the school to the students and parents at this point in time you know COVID is unfortunately spreading once again dark and dreary times will pass very soon but you know the school is taking a lot of different efforts with respect to curriculum with respect to learning with respect to keeping the entire mindset positive for students is there some message that you'd like to convey to the parents as well as students who are watching this live session today like I've mentioned earlier also on another occasion you know we say change is the only constant yes times could be tough you know waters could be choppy winds could be you know a little rough but what we have to do is make sure that we are making the effort to steer you know the ship in the right direction keep on with the good work keep focused on your targets and I'm sure that you know these times will pass and we you know be able to achieve what we have set out to achieve so that is what I would say that you know like just focus on the positives and keep healthy keep safe thank you so much ma'am thank you so much and Elbrough is doing a lot of work for all of you members of the entire ecosystem extended family in Pune as well a lot of different activities that will always keep you up you know unfortunately news media these days is demotivating if not depressing and I think one of the best things to do is to keep ourselves safe to keep ourselves socially distanced you can get yourself vaccinated get yourself vaccinated please don't allow the police to receive an opportunity to find you for not wearing a mask because they're doing their job at the end of the day please of course maintain all these safety health guidelines try and help everybody around you as far as you possibly can by spreading the correct information that's one of the most important things that students can do and then of course try and keep yourself positive by using this as an opportunity to try and learn so many different things in fact Dhwani just mentioned something about a course that she did online with Columbia and there are so many such online courses available so many all events and initiatives we just got done with EIS Eman a huge success yesterday there's so many other events of this sort that are taking place as a part of the Elbrough fraternity please try and keep yourselves positive and keep a learners and a growth mindset that learner profile is what is going to provide you with a profile to get into a Harvard University tomorrow thank you so much ma'am for sharing a very powerful message and with this I would actually like to hand over proceedings to Sugandha ma'am I believe there is a surprise for Dhwani ma'am am I right I'm sorry you're on mute well I think yes thank you Mrs. and Mr. Garth for sharing your views thank you Amrita ma'am it's always such a pleasure to hear your inspiring words and I think this entire show would probably be a little incomplete without actually having you know Dhwani's teachers give her a message so I'd like to share a small video with you Dhwani and of course for your audiences please allow me to share my screen. I would like to congratulate Dhwani for making it to the Harvard's. Dhwani has not only made us proud but she's an inspiration to the young learners. Dhwani is like a sponge she soaks in knowledge in class augments it through extensive reading and then assimilates and constructs that knowledge as a whole. I've known Dhwani for like five years now and she has always stood out for three things that I think define a student's character commitment responsibility and honesty and I think it is these three qualities that have always helped her to extend. Great to see you accomplishing such a spectacular feat new places to go new things to try and new people to meet it's all out there for you. I'm so proud of you for me Dhwani is someone who does her work for perfection. Dhwani I knew in seventh and eighth grade she had this little spark in her wherein she would question every task which was given to her why I should be doing this I think once you got convinced then you did it wholeheartedly and I think that has brought you a long way wherein you have achieved so much in your life. One of the outstanding qualities that she has is being a team player may there be success at every turn of life and all your dreams come true. This would be just the beginning of leading a very successful and a famous life I must say. You're going to be a very famous personality someday and we at that moment we would be as Elpros staff or Elpros students would be extremely proud of being associated with a name called as Dhwani Garuk. You've been a student that every teacher would want to have in her class an ideal student. Everyone knows that you are excellent in academics curricular activities but what many don't know is that you are also an excellent human being a quality that I truly appreciate. This is no surprise for me because we all know how sincere and diligent you are but the best thing about which I like is you take responsibilities happily and give your 100% to it. This is just the beginning for you Dhwani there are so many more accolades waiting for you out there. I'm sure her hard work, zeal and enthusiasm would be an inspiration to her juniors in the school in the years to come and they would plan and be motivated to have similar kind of achievement. She has an insatiable thirst for knowledge she's passionate she's driven and she has this wonderful curiosity that forces her to read more understand better and have a different perspective on all things. Honestly speaking I was least surprised when I got to know that you've made it to Harvard but I was extremely happy because I know you deserve it. It's just the beginning Dhwani of realizing your goals and I'm sure you will reach greater heights in future. I have seen your work so hard across the years not only in academics but in all the post-cholastic activities and events so you deserve where you are today. She was a student who didn't need much mentoring. She came with a very solid and strong foundation but more than anything it was her humble nature and zest for learning that has taken her to this pinnacle of success. It's a proud moment for you and us as well your hard work has paid off keep shining keep growing God bless. Wishing you the very best keep in touch do come back to us do keep visiting us and always remember that we are here to back you in any way lots of love Dhwani and best wishes. Congratulations Dhwani keep growing and keep making us proud. I wish you all the best for your future. Keep yourself happy and make yourself very proud I'm sure everybody around you would be proud of you. Very big congratulations from Elpro family and best wishes for your next adventure. So Dhwani how does that feel? Unmute yourself. I have made so many videos for teachers day for all these events and I never thought it would I never thought I would have the teachers making a video for me. This is like I this is unbelievable I'm so happy I'm trying very hard not to cry on camera and it felt very much like a farewell that I don't want right now I really want this not to end. You don't want you to go either there is in fact one more message that I would like to read out from Angela ma'am she's sent out a message for you once we shared it with her that you've made it to Harvard. It goes dear Dhwani I have no doubt that your entire family and all your teachers are superlatively proud of your achievement and you should be too. Securing a place at Harvard is exceptional in normal times to have achieved this in the present climate is outstanding. Later today when the celebrations have died down and you are on your own take the time to write a letter to yourself so that you can read it in 10 years 20 years or 50 years time. Very best wishes Angela French. Angela ma'am requested me to read out this message to you so yes Dhwani I think all of us are extremely proud of you. Any last thoughts Dhwani before we bring this short conclusion? Yeah I mean I have I think I've experienced it a lot of times how grateful I am to the school the teachers and everyone and for the students watching this I would I think Anand sir has said this but dream big I didn't think I would get into Harvard I was applying I just thought okay it doesn't harm to you know apply and I did get in and I really think everybody has the capability to do that and it is good to have safety but dream big and I think you can achieve Thank you. Thank you Mrs. and Mr. Garth for being with us today and sharing your thoughts and your happiness about Dhwani's achievement. Thank you so much Anand for steering this entire show. I think you are you're a very cherished part of our family and nobody better you know for to about I mean other than you to do this show for us so thank you very much Anand. Thank you so much Amrita ma'am for allowing us to you know do things that in a small way or in a you know in a good way have helped Dhwani to you know be where she is I think it's only your leadership that gives us the confidence to always move forward in the right direction so thank you so much Amrita ma'am and thank you audiences for joining us live before we conclude uh yes we are in really tough times uh from the entire Alipra family please mask up do not venture out if absolutely not necessary do get vaccinated take care of yourself stay safe and stay home thank you so much with