-Mita Mukherjee
The daughter of a poor farmer of a remote village in Himachal Pradesh has been offered a full scholarship for pursuing a three-year Ph.D programme by Oxford University, UK.
Sakshi Sharma who hails from an under BPL family in Nilchir Bhàter village in Himachal Pradesh will be doing research in organic chemistry.
The scholarship will cover full tuition fees and all other expenses including food and accommodation for three years. If the research needs to be extended for another year, the university will provide the full tuition fee in the fourth year. But she will have to pay the living and other expenses on her own in the fourth year.
She also got selected by some other renowned institutions like Cambridge University and Manchestor Univetsity.
Sakshi who grew up in an environment of extreme poverty with little availability of education and healthcare facilities has completed B.Sc honours in chemistry at St Stephen’s College, Delhi.
The expenses for studying in this top college was provided by Dr. Reddy’s Foundation, which offers scholarship to girls with outstanding merit coming from impoverished families and interested in pursuing higher studies in science.
She did her schooling from Swami Vivekananda Memorial Public Senior Secondary School at Bilaspur in Kandraur district in Himachal Pradesh affiliated with the state secondary education board. She scored 96.6 and 98.3 percent in Class XII and Class X board examinations respectively.
Sakshi says she wants to take up basic research in organic chemistry with the goal of synthesizing organic compounds with therapeutic values for living organisms which will contribute in the field of development of drugs and address healthcare problems.
“I come from a very remote village where I was brought up amidst all odds and where basic facilities in education and healthcare are hardly available. I had to face acute financial constraints at every stage of my life. Despite all the hindrances I always had the ambition to discover new developments in science. Since I have seen how people suffer because of lack healthcare facilities, I had determined to make a change for the betterment of healthcare facilities in India” Sakshi told EducationWorld.
She has another goal to achieve, “advance sustainability in education and to establish safe environment for all individuals particularly women to reach their full potential,” says Sakshi.
Sakshi is grateful to her father Basant Kumar who despite being a poor farmer had always given her the inspiration and support to pursue higher studies in science and for instilling the spirit of “education first ” which helped her to develop the sense that proper research would only help to fill the void in the health sector in correct manner.
To realise her dreams to study in a world-class institution, Sakshi was offered all kinds of help by EduAims, an educational consultancy engaged in assisting students seeking admission to premier institutions across the globe to complete all the formalities including the application and counseling process for seeking admission to Oxford Univetsity. Sakshi is likely to join the university in September.
Michael Wharton, senior counsellor at EduAims said he worked with Sakshi for over a year to help her fulfilling her dream.
“Despite her difficult circumstances, she was able to leverage the opportunities and with the right guidance as she secured a fully-funded scholarship for three-year duration of her Ph.D at the world-class renowned Oxford University. Moreover, she was able to secure other prestigious admissions with funding at top colleges including Manchester University and Cambridge University. We are glad that we could empower her to realise such a rare and exciting opportunity,” Wharton told EducationWorld.