The Ocean in a Drop: Inside-Out Youth Leadership

Ashraf Patel is a founder member and board member of Pravah and Commutiny―The Youth Collective. She is presently Director, Learning Voyages―Pravah and Organization Facilitator at Commutiny―The Youth Collective. From 1990 to 1994 she worked with SRF and Escorts Financial Services. After this stint with the corporate sector, Ashraf cofounded Pravah and was the chief executive from 1994 to 2001. She is also an Ashoka Fellow and has served on several working groups, including the Working Group for Youth and Adolescents set up by the Youth Ministry for the Eleventh Five Year Plan, the Working Group for Adolescent Education set up by the HRD Ministry for the Twelfth Five Year Plan, and the National Committee set up by the UNDP and the Youth Ministry for IYV+10. Ashraf did her bachelors in Physics from Delhi University followed by a postgraduate diploma in Industrial Relations Management from XLRL, Jamshedpur.

Meenu Venkateswaran is a founder member and board member of Pravah and Commutiny―The Youth Collective. At Pravah, she has worked in several capacities―including head of Teacher Training and as the CEO. Presently she is Director, Resource Mobilization and Partnerships at Pravah. She has also worked with MARG Marketing and Research Group, SRF Finance, and CRY, and has consulted with Ashoka-Innovators for the Public, Plan International, and Credibility Alliance. She is a trustee of Patang, a youth organization in Odisha and Spanda, a performing arts trust. Meenu completed her masters (1985) in Economics from Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University, and obtained a postgraduate Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore in 1990.

Kamini Prakash is presently a board member and Director, Research at Pravah. She also looks after Change Looms: A Learning and Leadership Journey―a program for young social entrepreneurs. She has worked as executive director, The Hope Project, Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin, New Delhi, and as a program associate, Urban Programs, Care India. She is also a board member of the Hope Project and the Fabindia School, Rajasthan. She obtained her masters in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries from London School of Economics, and her PhD in German Studies from Michigan State University, USA.

Arjun Shekhar is a founder member and board member of both Pravah and Commutiny―The Youth Collective. He is currently the President of the Pravah Board and director, Vyaktitva, a performance enhancement organization. He studied at the Delhi School of Economics, Delhi, and then XLRI, Jamshedpur. He worked at NIIT and SRF between 1990 and 1997. He is the author of the novel A Flawed God (2011).