Belonging to Shopian town in south Kashmir, Adeeba Tak andoriginally from the same district Muhammad Moin Mir came into the limelightlast year, after securing scholarship based admission into coveted IVY leagueinstitutions in the United States. The journey from Shopian to their respectiveprestigious institutions, University of Pennsylvanian and Princeton University,has been a life-changing experience for both Adeeba and Moin.
With fame and success, has come a sense of responsibilityamong the young achiever duo which is currently on a 3-month summer vacation inthe Valley. The urge to pay back totheir homeland Kashmir has made them join hands to launch an initiative Wath(the path).
As per Moin, Wath will help hand-hold students from standard8 to standard 12 in shaping-up their careers in unconventional professionalstreams. “By and large the two careers most sought after here are medicine andengineering. We want to guide students in fulfilling their aspirations ofgetting into streams such as aviation, graphic designing, art and design,journalism etc,” said Moin. “After getting the Princeton admission last year, Ihave received hundreds of curious calls from parents and students on the wayforward in career. Wath is an initiative to guide such students and parentsacross the lengths and breadths of the Valley towards evolving careers,” saysMoin. Both Adeeba and Moin are all praises for Rise Institute which helped themshape-up their career. “Rise opened a window to a whole new world. It did a lotgood to us and now is time for us to do our bit,” says Adeeba.” We arehoping that this initiative will be as big in other districts and towns as in Srinagar,”she says.
Adeeba who is pursuing her mechanical engineering atUniversity of Pennsylvania in the US says it was initially the transition fromShopian to Srinagar during her standard 11 studies that brought-in therealisation regarding lack of guidance and facilities school students in herhome town face. Adeeba says during last one year she has been invited byschools and other institutions for interactions with students during which sherealised that it is important to shape-up young minds to help them choose aparticular career path. “It was an altogether different world in Srinagar whenI came here for tutions. There was so much in terms of knowledge about avenueswhich students in Shopian were not exposed to,” says Adeeba. “This last oneyear in the wonderful university back in US has taught me what experientiallearning is. The educational system there is such that you are not stuck to astream after choosing it. Even today I have the option of switching frommechanical engineering even after spending a year in it,” says Adeeba. “We wantto leverage on our learning and help students realize their dreams of pursuinga career in any unconventional stream,” said Adeeba whose father is agovernment employee and mother a housewife. Adeeba says she had to not justwork hard to make it to University of Pennsylvanian but be courageous in doingwhat no one from the town had earlier achieved. “Peer pressure is such asimportant factor in choosing of careers in Kashmir. Friends, family,relatives….all of their expectations and what not. We went through it but nowwith Wath we want to provide a professional platform to 8-12 standard studentsin choosing the unconventional careers,” says Abeeba. Moin whose upbringing hashappened in Srinagar says Wath the initiative has been divided into threephases. To begin with the achiever duo of Moin and Adeeba are planning to holda workshop in Srinagar between August 17-19. “We will finalise the venue forthe workshop soon. In the second stage Wath intends to become a bridge betweenstudents and industry for creating internship opportunities,” says Moin. Adeebais quick to add that lack of internship culture for high-school students is alacuna in the educational system in this part of the world. “I was here for 3months and wanted to do an internship but could not find a suitable place. Withour initiative we want more students to get exposure to the real professionalworkplace culture,” says Adeeba. As per the duo, mentorship is the thirdimportant focus area of Wath as a part of which the school students will bementored by students of prestigious universities and colleges. “We are using anonline platform for this in which bright minds will be mentoring aspiringones,” says Moin. When asked how the initiative will work once the duo is awayin the US after their summer break, Moin says they have a team in place inKashmir. “We will manage a lot through internet and already have a team presenthere,” Moin says.
They are available on adeeba@seas.upenn.edu andmoin@princeton.edu . The twitter and instagram handle for Wath is@findyourWath.