Want to give it back to the society? Here’s the right place for you.

India, the home of innovative minds, is now bringing IIT graduates under one umbrella where they’ll educate needy students, those who want to study in top educational institutes. This is an initiative by Avanti, a for-profit venture backed by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund. The award-winning social enterprise was established by IIT alumnus in 2010 and is currently having eighty full time teachers with around 300 volunteers and support of over 1,200 high-school students across the country.

Most of the people working at Avanti are IIT graduates and are earning about one-fourth of what they would have got in any multi-national. But, the job satisfaction is more than enough to make-up for that.

Avanti president and co-founder, Akshay Saxena, an IIT Bombay alumnus feels that the best part is that they are attracting the India’s best undergraduates for the cause. Saxena said, "All of our recruits have a passion for teaching but what's most exciting for our team is that we're working towards re-imagining education and creating an alternate model that uses technology to deliver quality through process."

A report published in Economic Times says that after turning up into a for-profit organization in 2012, it opened centers in Mumbai, Delhi, Kanpur, Chennai and is still expanding. Besides the IITs, it has also hired graduates from the National Institutes of Technology and St Stephen's in Delhi.

Prachi Windlass, director of education, India, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation says that the biggest attraction, she believes is the draw for high-quality talent; for example IIT alumnus sense Avanti’s social mission, and a performance-based culture for achieving that mission.

Admission into a top engineering college is a life-transforming experience, and who understands that better than young graduates."

What makes Avanti different from other platforms is its coaching model that helped 18 students from Hindi-speaking, low-income backgrounds get into top engineering colleges this year. The two-year program costs these candidates a total of Rs25,000-35,000 for one whole year, one-third of what other coaching institutes charge. Of the 102 Avanti students who wrote the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) this year, 57 went through to the next stage with 18 clearing JEE Advanced.

Image source: avanti official website