Fellowship Project: Pilot a scholarship program to provide residential, intensive training to visually impaired students from underprivileged segments of India to reach their full potential.

Highlights: Pallavi is serving as an American India Foundation (AIF) Clinton Fellow with Vision Aid in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. For her Fellowship project, she is piloting a scholarship program to provide residential, intensive training to visually impaired students from underprivileged segments of India to reach their full potential. Pallavi’s passion for an inclusive and innovative education policy motivated her most recent project in Hyderabad, funded by the Women and Gender Leadership Fund. She documented how women without access to formal education, particularly those from marginalized communities, have used informal networks and vocational training centers to positively transform their socioeconomic outcomes. Pallavi's first experience in the development sector was as a volunteer teacher for Make a Difference, an organization that works towards empowering vulnerable children in Hyderabad. During college, Pallavi worked as a Fellow at the Mgrublian Center of Human Rights, studying the role of educational institutions and networks, policies, and pedagogies in combating radicalization and promoting socioeconomic independence among high-school students in Kashmir. Engaging with the community by supporting organizations and founding her own service initiatives such as the India Education Project, has been of immense personal and academic importance to her. On campus, she worked as an economic journalist with the Lowe Institute of Political Economy to learn the art of compelling, engaging, and credible data-driven storytelling and writing. Realizing the importance of women role-models, she worked as a part of the founding team of Claremont Women in Business, providing a community network and resources to women on campus for professional pursuits. Through the AIF Clinton Fellowship, Pallavi is eager to gain more experience in the development sector, learn about the complexities, opportunities, and challenges in this space, meet incredible people, and take a step forward in enabling positive change.