Teach For India - Round II

Based on my online application I was shortlisted for the telephonic interview which was the next step in the selection process. I received an email on the 18^th of February from TFI confirming my candidature to the next stage which was a telephonic interview. And to my surprise the interviewer was himself a Fellow (2012-14) who was teaching, in a school in Yerwada, Pune. My telephonic interview was scheduled on 20^th of February. I had butterflies in stomach but I knew all I could do the best was to be myself and it would be just fine.

 

I was to get the call between 9:00PM - 10:00PM IST. My work timings are 12:00PM - 9:00PM IST so I rushed back home as soon as my shift was over. I opened my laptop and kept the TFI website open; my TFI application file was open and a bottle of water beside me. I played an episode of FRIENDS and waited calmly for the call, munching on to a snicker bar (Intake of sugar is always good to keep one energized and calm). To my surprise, the interviewer did not call till 10:00PM. I was a little tensed then, but I calmly opened my Gmail account and sent my interviewer a mail that I did not receive any call in the time slot allotted. And then I just served myself some food and sat down for dinner; just then I got a call from an unknown number. I find unplanned telephonic interviews extremely crucial, but then I just took a deep breath and answered the call. First, he very politely introduced himself, and then apologized for the delay for the call, narrated a bit about the whole Teach for India movement. Also he informed me that he will be typing down every answer of mine and thus, to spare him few moments after every answer.

During the interview, I firstly listened to every question asked carefully and then took a moment or two to collect my thoughts and then answered confidently. I got quite some time since he also took a few moments to type down whatever I said.

The questions he asked were pretty obvious. To mention a few of them;

1) Why do you want to be a Teach for India Fellow?

2) Why Teach For India and not anything else?

3) Narrate an incident where you displayed your leadership qualities.

4) What qualities are you looking forward to develop within you at TFI?

5) What goals would you want to achieve in the two year of the fellowship?

6) How would you like to manage your classroom differently than the others?

7) What qualities or values would you like to bring within the kids at your school?

8) What will be your short and long term goals are TFI?

9) Narrate a situation where you managed some problem or any situation by yourself and also mention if you succeeded at doing so and how you felt about it?

And few more, I don’t exactly remember. The interview went on for about 45minutes. At the end, he asked me if I had any questions to which I inquired as to how many applicants have been invited to the second round and how many final fellowship offers does TFI intend to make this year. He told me that TFI has no specific number as to how many offers would be made or so, TFI strictly goes for quality. Also, he told that there were approximately 35-40,000 applicants this year and about 7-10% is offered fellowship.

My interviewer also informed me that I would be getting my results in a fortnight’s time and roughly after a week, I got this message from TFI confirming my progress to the next round - Assessment Centre.

The message:

Dear Neha,

Congratulations! We are delighted to invite you to the final stage of our selection process for the 2014 Fellowship – the Assessment Center! Our process is highly selective and this year less than 30% of all Applicants have reached this final stage. We were impressed by your leadership, achievement and commitment to this movement.

The Assessment Center is an opportunity for us to meet you in person and to find out more about your experiences and interest in Teach For India. It is also a great opportunity for you to meet us and other like-minded Applicants.

I badly want to be a part of TFI and when I got the mail confirming my admit I was screamed so loud, my roommates almost freaked out! The last round to go now, this will be happening around mid-March. Fingers crossed!! :)

Teach For India

"What motivated you to apply to TFI and why is it important to you that you are accepted onto the Fellowship?"

I have a very close friend currently working in Mumbai TFI, as a Design Associate, who told me about how fulfilling the fellowship is but also made it very clear about how dedicated one has to be to survive here since the program is very demanding, difficult and rigorous. I am self motivated & driven, want to empower the future of tomorrow which is these children. My life's values & objectives match the organization's goals. 

I have hardly made any contributions towards my country till date. Though in around mid 2011, when Anna Hazare organized a hunger strike at Delhi to support the “Jan Lokpal Bill”; there was a rally carried out that time in almost every city in India. I too participated in the candle light walk from Kothrud to Parvati and also volunteered in the distribution of leaflets about the awareness for the Lokpal Bill. In the short term, kids should become loving, compassionate, understanding. They should have time to study, play games for their well-being and pass on the positivity & confidence to everyone around them. 

Talking about long term I would say, these kids are the future of our country and what we teach them today is what will be carried forward by them and passed on to the generations ahead. These kids can be the change we want to see in the country & can help us get to a better position in the long term.

Success for me in TFI will be bringing a difference in the lives of the small kids. I would strive to work hard towards all these parameters & give the kids the best I have. I want to educate them & help them differentiate between rights & wrong so that they learn & then make their decisions themselves. I am sure that managing a child's mental frame of mind will be a serious challenge initially. I wish to get them out of their emotionally distressed life and get them to motivate themselves. Learning and teaching is the best way to excite one’s imagination. I am sure of achieving these goals because The fellowship will be more of an emotional & intellectual success you can say.

I want to join “Teach for India” because here I’ll meet all diversified people but with same purpose of working towards a better future for those kids. A child can get an instant smile on my face, their innocence and their persistence to learn and grow is surprising. So I would just like to end it short and sweet that I want to be here because I know I will surely love it and do justice to those kids.