PREMLATA POONIA
(K. C. Mahindra Fellow, 2011)
Born into an agricultural family, Premlata Poonia has always been close to her rural roots. Like her father, a teacher in a Government school who always dreamt of transforming rural India through Education, she too grew up with the same dream and pursued her education in a small village called Likhmewada in Rajasthan. To support her and her sister’s education, the family shifted to another village which was about 10 kms away from Likhmewada as it had a Government school. Premlata’s father travelled to Likhmewada everyday and watching him struggle & work such long hours, further fueled her passion to pursue her dreams. She continued with Junior college in the same government institution.
Her father was of the opinion that his daughter should study in a recognized college in a larger city, hence he requested a transfer of job to a school near Jaipur. Premlata was thus able to continue her under-graduation at Maharani College Jaipur. With her father’s guidance and encouragement, Premlata decided to continue studying with a focus on Human Resources; however this was where a challenge arose. Having studied in Hindi all her life, Premlata faced the challenge of giving an entrance exam in English and she could only do this if she took a break from everything else. She started learning English and studying for this entrance exam, while also tutoring young children to add to the family income. Her efforts paid off, as the entrance exam results and her excellent undergraduate marks helped her secure a seat at IMT Ghaziabad. Her interest in Human Resources and management only grew when post her graduation, she was placed with the Trident Group. This interest along with her desire to make a difference in rural India pushed her further to attend the University of Michigan's prestigious Ross School of Business for an MBA in Social Entrepreneurship where she has now secured admission.
While in conversation she smiled stating that her extended family back in the village have never travelled even to the next town, let alone to a big city and that they can hardly pronounce the name of her overseas university! Premlata and her family truly portray that no dream is too big and it is possible to RISE above all limitations through determination and hard work. Premlata is a very deserving Candidate for the Mahindra fellows Scholarship.