‘Leadership belongs to those who take it’ – Sheryl Sandberg

This has been one of the guiding principles of my personal as well as professional life. From starting my own venture to help organizations reach their true potential through their most important asset – People, to coming out strong from a life threatening medical ailment, I have always believed in pursuing my goals and overcoming challenges that come in its path.

My ultimate career goal is to become a successful entrepreneur in the Human Resource Management space. I envision the MBA program at Ivey catapulting me towards achieving this goal. However, I do foresee challenges in this pursuit specially related to capital, which would be required initially to set up infrastructure and incurring operational expenses. Since, I have consumed most of my personal and family savings to ensure expedited recovery from my ailment, I feel that a financial aid from the intuition of my choice, would give me the much needed peace of mind and leverage to have an open mind towards diving into my entrepreneurial journey again. This would also take care of my medical insurance premiums, which have nearly doubled, and not put financial strain on my parents.

I understand that learning is a two way street. Thus, while I stand to gain a lot from the MBA program, I intend to give back to it by virtue of sharing my knowledge of rapidly evolving  Human Resource industry and  learning from my entrepreneurial journey, giving motivational speeches around how should one always stay optimistic, and, contributing to community service causes in and around the school.

During interactions with my cohort, I will share how I battled all the odds to start my firm in the HR Consulting space and the high and low points of the experience. This would hopefully become a source of inspiration especially for my female classmates who always have entrepreneurial dreams post MBA.  Apart from sharing my stories, I would also actively work towards Women in Business initiatives either through the partnerships already established – Lean In Canada, Forte Foundation, or assisting the school in forming more such ties. Leveraging my experience of recruitment and talent acquisition, on one hand, I will assist the careers team of the college to grab attention of more recruiters, and on the other, I will help the students to tailor their job pitches according to the recruiter’s needs.

Having seen my parents actively contributing to community service activities since childhood, I was naturally drawn to it.  I have worked on several projects including Meri Dilli Meri Yamuna (Rejuvenation of the river Yamuna), Pranayam Dhyan Shivir (a national initiative to spread awareness of the benefits of meditation), Mahila Haat (an initiative towards women empowerment). At Ivey, I look forward to being a part of Ivey Connects, and bring the benefits of my learning to the Ivey Community. 

Thus considering my financial situation, my passion and my potential contribution to the Ivey community, I would urge to consider me for a grant.