Monami Chakraborty, Nikita Ramanujam with career interest in social enterprise awarded $10,000 fellowships
Two Indians are among 11 MBA students with experience and a career interest in social enterprise awarded Harvard Business School’s (HBS) 2021 Horace W. Goldsmith Fellowships.
Incoming students Monami Chakraborty and Nikita Ramanujam both get $10,000 fellowships to encourage students from the nonprofit and public sector to attend HBS, according to a press release.
Beginning with the Class of 1990, 236 incoming students have received the fellowship established in 1988 by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and Richard L. Menschel (MBA 1959), a former director of the Foundation and a limited partner at Goldman Sachs.
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Chakraborty has spent the last four years at Dasra, India’s leading strategic philanthropy foundation that has improved development outcomes for over 30 million Indians.
She focused on diligence and capacity building to help leaders scale their operations, working in the founder’s office to develop Dasra’s strategy, and to scale safe and inclusive sanitation solutions in urban India.
“By choosing to continue in a career in development post HBS, I hope to steer strategic, gender-focused investments that yield real social impact,†said Chakraborty.
Ramanujam spent four years as a fourth-grade teacher in the Oakland Unified School District. With a commitment to use public education as a vehicle for economic mobility, she built her school’s first data driven framework for allocating academic and mental health services.
During Covid, she led plans across the district for digital learning for 15,000 students and safety plans for students to receive learning materials and food.
“My career aspirations leverage a multi-faceted approach across social systems, and HBS will allow me to benefit from the prowess, feedback, and support of current students and alumni,†said Ramanujam.
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Recipients of the fellowships have served in leadership roles in nonprofit and public sector organizations and demonstrate a strong commitment to continued career paths in these areas, HBS said.
New recipients are invited to participate in events with current and former recipients as well as local social enterprise leaders in an effort to create a network of individuals committed to working in social enterprise.