Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)
Dr. Rakesh Godhwani
A widely acknowledged master of articulation, Dr. Rakesh Godhwani is the Bengaluru-based founder-CEO of the School of Meaningful Experiences (SoME, estb.2018, head count: 22), an education start-up that offers online communication and leadership skills development programmes to teenage children, entrepreneurs and working professionals.
Through partnerships with corporates, schools, colleges and other education institutions, the school has certified 30,000 learners over the past four years. SoME has a presence in five cities (Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Mangaluru) in India and two overseas (Sydney, Kuala Lumpur) and hosts a current cohort of 967 learners.
Newspeg. Last September, SoME successfully concluded the second season of India’s only online debating competition for teens Debato 2021. It attracted participation of 300 school teams from across the country.
History. A computer science engineering and business management alum of NIT, Surathkal and IIM-Bangalore with a Ph D in leadership communication awarded by Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK, Godhwani served for over a decade in several blue-chip companies (Wipro, Intel and Qualcomm) before going solo in 2008 to follow his passion to “teach, write and research”. Subsequently, he taught at IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Trichy, IIM-Vizag, SDM IMD, IIM Udaipur and Ahmedabad University as adjunct faculty. After completing his Ph D programme in 2017, he was offered a tenured professor position at a university. But he turned down the offer as it would have restricted him from teaching communication skills to students.
“My dream was to teach millions of students. I realised this ambition could only be achieved through a start-up. For me, good education is about creating meaningful experiences. In 2018, the School of Meaningful Experiences was born,” says Godhwani.
Direct talk. “Indian education has traditionally neglected developing students’ communication, soft and other essential life skills. The focus has been primarily on machines, hard skills, sciences and mathematics. I became aware of the enormity of a communication deficit in my corporate life. Moreover, my teaching experiences revealed that many schools and colleges wrongly equate command of English with communication. There’s much more to it. Unfortunately, this key aspect of education is a rarity because there are insufficient communication departments in Indian colleges. SoME’s goal is to empower learners of all age groups through effective communication and sound leadership skills,” says Godhwani.
Future plans. Encouraged by the positive response to SoME programmes, Godhwani has drawn up an ambitious roadmap for the future. “We have finalised plans to reach 1 million learners by 2025 and 10 million by 2030. SoME has plans to penetrate tier II-IV towns across India and create better jobs for communication teachers and trainers. Our mission is to develop SoME into an institute of the future and make learning an enriching, empowering and everlasting experience for learners across all age groups,” says Godhwani.
Way to go!