Lakshmi Budanoor Shivarama, Academic Advisor - Prarthana School has been recognized as Most Inspiring Academic Educator of the Year - 2023, Bengaluru by Business Mint

“ A fish would envy her smartness, a peacock would brag about her prettiness, a giraffe would say, “she is definitely short,” a donkey would appreciate her spirit of hard work, a swan would treat her equal in terms of compassion, however, the tiger would mirror her willpower, boldness, and courage.”

 I, Lakshmi Shivarama, support women to work with femininity, love, empathy, and kindness. I spearhead a team of 7500 students, 350 teachers, and 16,000 parents at our family-run Prarthana School, Bangalore, India. My team is predominantly made up of women, and I get a thrill of ‘growing’ them and creating new female leaders in the world.

 From India, I travelled to USA, the other side of the world, to pursue my Bachelors in Finance from Rutgers University, USA, and Masters in Accounts and Finance from Manchester Business School, UK, in the year 2010 and 2012 respectively. Currently, I am pursuing Masters in Mathematics for Teaching at Harvard University, USA. Exposure to the world humbles me and makes me feel small. I view travel as one of the avenues to expand my mind.

I empower students, teachers, and parents to teach and learn with a sense of purpose and with love. I believe in the power of education, not only as a path to upward mobility but as an opportunity to provoke self-awareness. With Learning Design and Technology Graduate Certificate from Harvard University, I took a step ahead in the new direction to apply design thinking and backwards design to create learning experiences for students to be shapers of knowledge rather than being a mere downloader of information from teachers.

On the personal side, as a mother of a three year old boy, I blog about creating avenues to express and expand energy and love through travel, fitness, and conscious daily choices to look at life as glass half full. A day doesn’t go by without fitness regime. I work out on a regular basis, but it is no longer to burn calories to attain imaginary perfect shaped body. Today, I move my physical body to move through my feelings, clear my head, release my emotions, and remove blockages.

 Making conscious daily choice to look at life as glass half full, especially on dark days, is one of my most important avenues to expand energy. I do this for my family, my team, my community and, most importantly, myself. I bring my whole, truest, and healthiest self to my work and the world – the way I show up as a leader impacts everyone around me.