About Swayam!
Why We Care
The four of us (Ashni, Deepti, Thomas and Somik) have experienced firsthand the frustrations of lack of funding for our education. Having been international students at Stanford, we were unable to access federal loans with low interest rates available to U.S. citizens. Since loan companies require internationals to get U.S. citizen co-signers to avail of private loan options, those of us lucky enough to have American relatives hesitantly requested them to guarantee large education loans. Others put their families through financial hardship, exhausted their life savings or burdened themselves with several part time jobs alongside their education to make ends meet. We also realised that our difficulties in the U.S. did not rival those of millions of students in the developing world whose desires to pursue higher education even in their own countries were dampened by lack of funds.
Studies conducted by international organizations such as UNESCO have shown that of all individuals eligible to enter higher education, only 24% actually enrol. This is a worldwide issue, but is felt acutely in developing countries such as India (where the percentage is as low as 10.5%) and China (7.5%). Often, lack of funding is at the root of the problem. For India to be able to catch up with the worldwide average of 24%, over 35 million more of its students would need access to funding. Of the students who manage to secure loans to pursue higher education, many fear being crippled by high repayment amounts, which might not be commensurate with their actual earnings. Swayam (meaning Self-Reliance in Sanskrit) was born out of the desire to eradicate the financial barrier to education for millions of bright, motivated students around the world.
Who We Are
Ashni Mohnot earned her BA in Human Biology and English and MA in International Comparative Education (Policy focus). She currently works as director of education for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford. She has extensive experience in international education, international health, curriculum development and admissions. She is passionate about the potential of social entrepreneurship to address international development and poverty issues.
Deepti Chatti earned her BE in Civil Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad and her MS in Environmental Engineering and Science from Stanford University. She currently works at Carollo Engineers on water and wastewater management. She has project experience in green design, environmental sustainability and the use of microcredit for accessing water and sanitation.
Thomas Seyller earned an engineering degree at Ecole Polytechnique in France and an MS and PhD in Management Science and Engineering, with a focus on Decision and Risk Analysis, from Stanford University. He will start working as a consultant at Strategic Decisions Group (SDG) in March 2008. He has professional experience in real estate loans and consulting and academic and research experience in Decision Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, Probability, Economics, Finance and Optimization.
Somik Raha is a Ph.D. student in Decision & Risk Analysis in the Management Science & Engineering program at Stanford University, within which he also earned a Masters in Organization Behavior and Strategy. His professional experience includes designing Loan Decision Systems for Nucleus Software, conducting Global Teamwork research at Intel Corporation, coaching teams in Extreme Programming (XP) as an Industrial Logic coach and designing mobile gateways and collaboration technology for Kizna Corporation in Tokyo. Somik holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Bangalore Institute of Technology.