Shravani is the daughter of a private school teacher and a private company employee; for her, this achievement is more than just a personal victory. (Express photo)
Fifteen-year-old Shravani Deepak Tonge has become the first student from a school run by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation to get a full scholarship of the Robert Bosch College, a prestigious institute under the United World Colleges network, in Germany.
“I am not scared but a bit nervous as to how I things will turn out for me in Germany…The only thing is I have been to Germany on a 15-day study tour earlier from my school. And therefore, I have experience of that country,” Shravani said, speaking to The Indian Express.
Shravani completed schooling from Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj English Medium School in Kasarwadi. The school is run jointly by the PCMC and Akansha Foundation. The school building construction was partly funded by actress Rekha.
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Shravani is the daughter of a private school teacher and a private company employee; for her, this achievement is more than just a personal victory. It is the culmination of years of effort and the opportunities offered by her municipal school. Scoring 93% in her Class 10 board exams in June this year, captaining the school’s basketball team, winning gold in discus throw, and clearing multiple scholarship exams — she has built a profile of both academic depth and leadership, her school administration said.
“The scholarship is for a two year diploma course which will be based on IB syllabus. I was selected for it through online written test and an interview. The exam was held when I was giving by SSC prelims. The college will be taking care of all my expenses including the tution fees. The tution fee for one year is Rs 40 lakh and Rs 80 lakh for two years,” she said.
Shravani said the academic year starts from August 28. “But because of visa issue, I would be leaving in early September,” she said.
Prajit Prakash, the principal of the school, said, “Shravani was one of our brightest students. We are proud of her achievement. Shravani has got a two-year scholarship. She will do an IB diploma course with United World’s College in Germany. If she emerges with flying colours at this college, she will do her bachelor’s in US. The scholarship covers her flight travel, her stay and all basic things she requires.”
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The principal said,“Shravani is the only one student from Maharashtra to be selected for the scholarship and one of the two from India. And only one from a PCMC school.”
Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Singh said, “Shravani’s achievement is a proud moment not only for her family but for the entire city of Pimpri Chinchwad. She has shown that with dedication, hard work and the right guidance, students from our municipal schools can match and even surpass the best anywhere in the world. This success reflects our strong focus on quality education, equal opportunities and inclusive growth in civic schools. We believe her journey will inspire thousands of other students to dream big and work towards achieving those dreams”
Additional Commissioner Pradip Jambhale Patil called her achievement “a testament to her hard work and the consistent efforts of PCMC’s education department.”
Assistant Commissioner Kirankumar More added, “Shravani’s achievement proves that PCMC school students have the quality, confidence and potential to shine globally.”
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Shravani now prepares to swap the monsoon skies of Kasarwadi for the crisp autumn air of Germany. Her story is a reminder that with determination, guidance and the right opportunities, even a journey from a municipal school classroom can lead to the world stage, said PCMC education officials.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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