Ashoka India:

Tadesh Inagaki

Princeton University ‘14

A Summer Internship in Bangalore and Beyond

The WorkVenture and Fellowship are the flagship programs at Ashoka India. This summer I was an intern for these programs, which work to support and network social entrepreneurs all around India (and around the world).

During my 10 weeks in India, I worked on a variety of projects, including:

Preparing for and facilitating a on-site meeting of Ashoka Fellows to discuss solutions to malnutrition

Editing Ashoka literature and online content prior to publication

Creating supplementary literature designed to assist Ashoka Venture Partners in identifying Fellowship candidates

Designing and collecting data for a comprehensive, up-to-date Fellowship Directory

Writing a research and interview based article for Ashoka’s Fellowship magazine

I had the great fortune to travel extensively during my internship, mostly on the weekends. Through an agreement with my supervisor, Ira, I was able to take a whirlwind trip to Rajasthan and Agra with Trap Yates ‘14, another Princeton Intern at Ashoka. I’ll never forget it!

Taj Mahal, Agra

Jodhpur, Rajasthan

Jodhpur, Rajasthan

Working with Ashoka

The most rewarding part of working with Ashoka was being treated like a full-fledged member of the team, not just as an ‘Intern’.

From my first day I felt I was given the full trust and confidence of my coworkers, a phenomenal group of friendly and supportive people from around India and the world.

Traveling with the Fellowship team to an on-site Health Initiative meeting of Fellows.Ashoka Fellow Anshu Gupta with Ashoka Staff Supriya and Ira

A co-op on site founded by Fellow ‘Bablu’ Ganguly

Impact at Ashoka

I supported Ashoka’s Fellowship and Venture teams in a wide variety of essential projects, including:

Data CollectionPublication DesignPublication EditingArticle WritingFellow Meeting Organization/Facilitation

Working with these projects, I feel I brought my own knowledge and intuition to Ashoka’s collaborative table. I was able to advance Ashoka’s work with their Fellowship community and contribute to the discovery and success of new social entrepreneurs who will change thousands of lives.

A wild trip to Kashmir, the contested northern state nestled in the Himalayas between India and Pakistan, was a both beautiful and chilling glimpse into another world.

The Himalayas, near the Kashmiri village of SonamargSrinagar, Kashmir

Passing a military convoy outside of Srinagar, KashmirA view from atop the highest altitude gondola in the world, Gulmarg, Kashmir

Future ImpactAlthough it will take a long time for me to fully digest the vast experience of this summer, there are several ways I can say with confidence that it has impacted my future, both by sparking new interests and providing invaluable work experience:

It sparked in me a new interest in social entrepreneurship and especially social business.

It familiarized me with a real office work environment, providing practical experience in office dynamics and responsibilities that I can carry with me for future employment.

It gave me my first experience doing the research, interviewing and writing necessary to produce an approachable but academic article for a professional grade magazine.

It immersed me in India’s non-profit world, fueling my desire and passion to bring positive, large-scale change to the world.

Jaipur, Rajasthan was a place of elephants, heat, and the Maharaja’s Amber Palace.

GrowthMy time in India was filled with incredible experiences – eating new foods, seeing magnificent palaces and temples, exploring the winding streets of Bangalore and alleys of Jodhpur. Most important to me, however, were the new people I met. From these meetings grew a realization that has completely transformed the way I think about ‘others’, especially about the poor and the suffering around the world:

People are people, no matter where you are. We all love and laugh and live in a way that unites us in an inexplicable common humanity, even while the details of our cultures, circumstances, and beliefs are incredibly diverse.

This trip brought me to realize how similar I am to the auto-rickshaw driver in Kerala, and to the shopkeeper in Jodhpur, and even to the children playing in the dirt under the overpass beside the Ashoka office.

I do not mean to belittle the struggles of their lives, nor take for granted the many riches with which I am blessed (by only fortune of birth). To the contrary, my experiences in India have vastly expanded my appreciation for both. What I mean is this: India taught me that we are all more than those factors of circumstance; we share a basic library of emotion and fundamental human experience that relates us all to one another.

This realization will drive the work I do for the rest of my life.

This summer would have been impossible without Princeton, IIP, my parents and friends, and the incredible people of India and Ashoka. Thank you all so much.