IND Org.

What is IND Org.?

IND Org. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization tackling the lack of educational resources, particularly in STEM fields, in underserved and resource lacking communities in third-world countries. Their program at its core teaches international students topics in science, technology, and mathematics but also additional programs that assure the utilization and reliability of their programs to kids around the world. While other nonprofits focus more on domestic gaps in education and primarily English speaking communities, IND Org. focuses its efforts towards international communities deprived of any, or little, English experience at all. For most students in underdeveloped countries such as India, the educational system open to the public that many lesser funded and resourced families and children resort to for their only exposure to education, the access to STEM education that goes beyond basic mathematics or reading and writing classes is limited, even more so the access to world languages such as English. IND Org. addresses this lack of English exposure and while still keeping their program up to date with advanced, modern, and enhanced STEM content, maintains the effort to provide for all students, no matter the language barrier. 

One interesting way the team at IND Org has developed to help address this problem was in-person traveling to schools across India and teaching them English. However, while the team still plans for this trip and is preparing for execution of the plan, they have considered the other realities of their goal and updated their plans to address the concerns as well. For one, the team has considered the timeliness of teaching English to people of other countries who are just beginners and have rudimentary experience or those who have had no real teaching or mentorship. This reality projects month long and approaching year long sessions especially when aiming towards a basic English proficiency for understanding STEM terminology. Instead, the team’s mission aims towards helping older students who have had their fundamentals of English learned and practiced making the process of bringing them up to capacity for STEM simpler and streamline. On the other hand, for those who haven’t had the same privilege, are younger, or aren’t able to attend and access the in-person events, IND Org. plans to develop English curriculums that they plan to teach online through virtual meetings such as Zoom and Google Meets. On top of this, while students who participate in the program work through the English curriculum established by IND Org., the team simultaneously works tirelessly to provide them a more optimal way to view and learn from their STEM lectures by translating their prior, recorded sessions with the help of affiliates who also share a native language. So far, the team consists of numerous translators that understand more than five languages native to India beyond the more widespread and popular ones, such as Hindi. This option for students particularly stands out for the lesser privileged and lesser funded communities. For example, with their first partner India school, the services IND Org. provides helps the students with skills and knowledge that in the long run, helps them to break out of the generational impoverishedness. This school in particular hosts a group of more unfortunate children who do not have parents who are guardians with them and must instead live in communal dorms with other students but also the teachers, who are in a similar state of impoverishedness, but also do not speak the mainstream language of Hindi. The skills taught and English translations provided by the organization have been targeted towards helping the students prepare for job interviews, college interviews, and even more places where a fundamental capability of English was useful. More so, the programs have helped give the students a stronger foot into being able to innovate and expand their qualities and have a better chance at shaping their own future.

Meet the Founders: Teja and Anshuman

Teja Yerramasetty and Anshuman Sharma jointly founded IND Org. together as high school sophomores in November of 2023. While their relationship and bond dated back a number of years prior, the organization reflects both’s ideals and hopes for their community, peers, and those around the world less fortunate than themselves. But while both found a common strive, both cite the source of their passions from different backgrounds.

Teja’s background started off on a less fortunate side. In his early life, Teja lived in India and grew up in a less wealthy family and community. His access to the resources, education, and English language was limited sufficient, but rather basic at best and, put simply, exactly the experience that he hoped to fix and prevent with his role at IND Org. Fortunately for him however, his family had the opportunity to move to the US where Teja was able to learn and explore the educational resources that his home and others in his home did not have and wouldn’t be able to explore as well. But with his fortune, Teja wasted no grain of the opportunity presented and developed a passion for the STEM fields, particularly in science and its relationship to health. Furthermore, the advanced and challenging classwork classes like the AP sciences and mathematics inspired a driving passion in him to enjoy the complexities of problem solving and learning and gradually, into wanting to spread the same experience back home, but to more communities that experienced the same deprivation. On another note, Teja has pursued his love for academia and supporting his community and has also run a nonprofit of his own with his father, bringing together his passion for health with a love for a tradition and activity he learned and grew up with in India, cricket, to help others in his community. During his time managing that organization, Teja and his father prepared, constructed, and repaired over 500 cricket bats in total for his local community and players. With the money raised from the efforts, Teja was able to donate over $18,000 in funds towards a collection of hospitals in his region devoted to cancer research, brain tumor research, and other scholarly health research projects. While his experiences and everlasting memory of those who hadn’t been as fortunate with him, Teja dedicated his efforts and skills to working together with his co-founder and friend, Anshuman.

Anshuman’s story finds its roots in a different status as Teja’s however still has inspired him to take up his passions and dedicate his time to supporting and operating IND Org. While Teja didn’t have the best access to resources during his early life in India, Anshuman oppositely was more fortunate and was able to attend a private school that offered a more in-depth and advanced educational experience. However, while attending such a school, Anshuman still noticed the number of peers and kids who didn’t attend his school but instead the government schools, or the public schools, and lacked the same experience in the classroom he did. While of course the private school was an option, not all the families in the area had the financial wellbeing to support their children through it. By the time Anshuman moved to the US during the fifth grade, he already had grown to know that he wanted to help those kids and communities facing similar circumstances of financial burden and under-supplying. As he grew up and entered high school, Anshuman found a passion for the STEM fields, particularly in chemistry and mathematics, and collaborated with Teja to found IND Org. for the purpose of spreading STEM education. Even still when catching up with his friend back from India, he still hears about and notices the differences between his educational life in the US and the ones experienced by his friends still in India and feels and knows that his fortune was a way that he could have an impact on students and kids from across the world.

The IND Org. Organization

IND Org. has organized itself into a detailed and thorough structure that organizes and manages their outreach efforts, programs, and internal organization. On one half, Teja runs the Executive Committee consisting of himself, the president, the vice president, the chief of staff, and committee secretary. On the other half, Anshuman oversees the Board of Directors as the managing director along with the operations director, head of outreach, and board secretary. With Teja’s and Anshuman’s joint commitment to having their organization be 100% run by high school peers, the organization has many opportunities for students to take more initiative and take on leadership roles. The organization also aims towards finalizing their 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and moving into their financial organization through banking and fundraising. With their fundraising and asset management, the organizations aims towards not only providing educational content to other countries but also into providing hardware and software appliances, such as computers and Wi-Fi, to underserved communities and enhancing their access and educational experience.

Future Outlook and Student Involvement 

Beyond their 2026 goal of expanding their programs to eight different countries, IND Org. aims to expand their programs across the world and give the same access to the less financially well off communities but also into countries that do not get the same mainstream media attention as others particularly across Africa and Asia. On top of its leadership organization, IND Org. is constantly looking for more tutors, translators, and volunteers to help out with its program and operation. Teja and Anshuman encourage students to reach out and inquire more into what the organization has planned and the roles and positions other high school students can take in their organization.