By Lisa Koonce | Project Leader
We are thrilled to share highlights from our first Red Bangle Forum in India. This special gathering at the Bangalore International Center honored two remarkable leaders with Red Bangle Awards: Vijayalakshmi, Leadership Academy Director in Madurai since 2005 and Sandhya Puchalapalli, Founder and President of Aarti Home for Girls and Leadership Academy Director since 2012 in Kadapa.
Selvi SubaChandran, WEP’s first student and now a risk manager for a leading financial services organization and a WEP-India Board Member, moderated a panel of alumnae, who took center stage to share their career paths and life since graduating from the Leadership Academy. Janaranjani, a recent alumna with a B.Sc. in Computer Science, also reflected on her time at the Academy and the safe space and supportive community that it offered. "We built a home out of the [Leadership Academy] where we loved, learned, laughed, and lived just like we wanted to be."
A second panel, Voices for Change, moderated by Pooja Goyal (Founding CEO of The Udaiti Foundation), featured Khushboo Awasthi (Co-Founder & COO, Shikshalokam and Co-Founder & Director, Mantra4Change), Zoë Timms (Founder, Women's Education Project), and Sangam Sirisha (Leadership Academy Manager & Alumnae). Together, they discussed leadership, preparing for future-ready jobs, and driving meaningful change.
The event united current students, alumnae, staff, and longtime and new supporters through thought-provoking discussions and heartfelt stories, highlighting our alumnae’s impact across fields and our community's commitment to lifelong learning.
At the forum, WEP also launched LAMP (Leadership Academy in My Pocket), a self-directed learning platform on which students engage in activities, meet role models and mentors, and choose projects to explore career paths. The initial pilot focused on Nutrition & Health and was co-created with 14 students from the Hyderabad Academy who worked alongside WEP staff. Their contributions included content creation, needs assessment, and testing the platform to ensure an interactive and engaging learning experience. Eventually all Academy certificates will be available on the LAMP platform, giving access to young women everywhere, especially in harder to reach communities.
By Zoe Timms | Executive Director
By Lisa Koonce | Project Leader
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