THE TEAM
"one child at a time, one aspiration at a time"
The Lightship Initiative scholarship program is designed to equip brilliant minds through a 360° intervention. It is designed to identify brilliant children and then take responsibility of their complete development from grade 9 till they graduate from college.
The team that has volunteered to come together for this cause, holds some of the most amazing people we have come across in our lives, very talented and accomplished individuals, who have worked closely with education and social betterment projects. They are smitten by the talent and the rigour of the children we have come across so far, and it inspires us all each day, to do better for themn to bring them the opportunities that they very well deserve!
Dilip Shah
Now-retired textile entrepreneur with a Chartered Accountancy background. A keen lover of nature. He is a self-made person with a very keen interest in investments and the power of compounding. He believes in the obligation of the privileged people to give back to society and devotes his time to social causes. Also an active volunteer at Blind People's Association in Ahmedabad. he supports the efforts of Lightship with his wisdom and time and is actively involved with day-to-day operations.
KUNAL SHAH
Founding trustee of TLI. Co-founder at Moi and Aurus. Entrepreneur. Gypsy at heart. Kunal realized the outsized influence that the adolescence years between grades 9 and 12 have on children when he was counseling his son, Arjun, also in Grade 10 in 2021 when Lightship was founded and the disproportionate advantage kids like him get with the right amount of advice, mentorship, and coaching. He chose this age group of kids as an intervention idea which has morphed into Lightship Initiative.
Jigar Patel
Trustee of TLI. Jigar is another example of one life influencing many more. An engineer from a small town near Ahmedabad, Jigar got the opportunity to pursue his Masters from a reputed college in the United States, which in turn, set him up for success. Currently, he heads a large IT team in a global pharmaceutical business and will be leading TLI’s efforts in the USA while being on the overall management committee of the initiative.
VATSAL GUPTA
Vatsal works as an investor in the capital markets in India. He strives for continuous improvement in our processes and systems.
Vatsal has a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.
ANAND SONI
Anand was born to a family of goldsmiths. He finished graduation 1st class, did 2 years of Mcom, and continued the goldsmith work. From 1999 to 2010, he worked with an education support organisation, where he was trained and got to work in education for the underprivileged both in India and internationally. He then pursued an MA in education from TISS Bombay and took up a job in the CSR division of Torrent Power. He now has an experience of 20-22 years of experience in the field. He was 48 when he started a private consultancy called Arya, a program for training teachers about tech support for children.
Hiral Adhyaru
Born to a joint family that believed in strong community service, Hiral was inspired to pursue a career as an environmentalist. She went on to be a founder-member and later a trustee of the Society for Environment Protection, a voluntary youth organization. In 1999, she joined the Gyanshala project of Education Support Organization, an NGO that aims to provide at par school education to children from poor rural and urban families. She currently serves as Program Head, higher education program, at Dr. K R Shroff Foundation.
YOSHA MOUDGIL
Determined dreamer, creative, marketeer, lover of history. She graduated from UCLA and moved back to India to find fulfilling opportunities as a brand marketeer. Beyond her everyday work, she loves working with kids and has volunteered to set up libraries and teach students in remote Ladakh. The more she grows the more she realizes she doesn’t know anything and all she can do is be a sponge to absorb from those around her.
BAANI ARORA
An engineer-turned-writer who loves taking a bunch of fancy and not-so-fancy words and conjuring up something meaningful for the world.hilosophy, etc.
VICKY KUMAR
A one-man creatives army describes Vicky the best! A NIFT Chennai graduate in Accessory Design, there is nothing that Vicky cannot do.
UKTI TRIPATHY
Designer. Ambitious. Always willing to walk the extra mile. A NIFT Gandhinagar graduate in Accessory Design, Ukti has been working with Kunal since 2017 and has been a part of the initiative since its conception.