Yes it’s true. At 17 year old, Malvika Raj Joshi of Mumbai, an unschooled teenager who was refused admission in IIT has been accepted at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on scholarship. This is the story of a mother’s belief to break stereotypes and the self belief of her teenage daughter who proved that ‘Merit’ can outdo a mark sheet.
AN INSPIRING STORY WHICH BREAKS STEREOTYPES
The story begins four years ago when Malvika was in Class 7th at Dadar Parsee Youth Assembly School in Mumbai. Malvika’s mother Supriya was working with an NGO that works for the welfare of cancer patients. While working at the NGO, Supriya was deeply affected by cancer patients who were in the 8th & 9th class. She had a firm belief that happiness is more important than conventional knowledge and hence she decided to pull Malvika out of school. Malvika became unschooled even after doing excellent in school.
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE
After becoming unschooled, Malvika explored many subjects including programming. She found programming very interesting and gave it more time than other subjects. She tried to get admission in elite institutes of India like IIT’s but was refused on the ground of eligibility as she didn’t even have a XII pass certificate.
Malvika’s IQ and superior intellect can be attributed to the fact that the only institute that allowed her to enroll was the Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI) where she got into an MSc level course. Eventually against all odds Malvika got a scholarship from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to pursue her Bachelor of Science Degree after getting a seat for being a three-time winner (two silver and a bronze) at International Olympiad of Informatics or commonly known as Programming Olympiad.
The MIT has a provision to accept students who are medal winners at Olympiads (Maths, Physics or Computer) and it was Malvika’s medals that gave her an opportunity to fulfill her aspirations of pursuing research work in her favorite subject.
LESSONS WE DERIVE
The biggest lesson one can derive from Malvika is self-belief. Even after being unschooled, she had faith in herself and despite facing many rejections she finally made it. Moreover she set the benchmark of getting into international horizons as a school dropout. She doesn’t have class 10th or 12th certificates to display as her qualification but today her medals are enough to say it all. She proved that competence cannot be measured by marks and certificates only.
Another lesson we can learn is to follow the voice of our inner conscience, our instincts. Our instincts can never be wrong if we are moving ahead with good intentions. All the odds can be in our favor.