12/1: Yesterday's Visit to School Of Inspired Leadership

In a few hours I will be on an eighteen hour train ride to Jaisalmer, in the far was of Rajasthan. I had a great month at Modern School. Both the teaching experience and the Student Leadership Conference were inspiring.

Yesterday I spent my last full day in Delhi at The School of Inspire Leadership. My connection to Anil Sachdev, the founder of the school, is through Anne Stadler, who also connected me to Lata Vaidyanathan, the principal of Modern School. About six months ago Anne hosted a dinner for Anil, who was visiting Seattle. He spoke of his difficulties in trying to start this new school. So it was very exciting for me to see his dream come to fruition.

The School of Inspired Leadership is a post-graduate business school, based on the five pillars of ethics, diversity, mindfulness, compassion, and sustainability - the foundation of "inspired leadership." Students spend one day every week working with an NGO. Each student is also mentored four to five hours a month by a business leader, coming from segments of the corporate world that share this vision. Some of the fundamental questions the school is trying to address are: Can business schools truly develop leaders who care for the planet? Can a business school help students to know themselves, realize their purpose, and discover their gifts? See: http://www.soilindia.net/ for more information on this remarkable and inspiring school.

As I entered the administrative offices of SOIL, Anil was in a meeting with an NGO called Magic Bus (http://www.magicbusindia.com/). He thought I might be interested in what they do, so he asked me to join them. Magic bus currently works with 150,000 youths from the slums of India, with a goal of growing to 650,000 young people by the year 2012. They came to SOIL to ask for help in connecting the segment of the corporate world which values service.

After a brief tour and some very interesting conversations with Sunita, Kanupriya and Mili, employees of SOIL, I joined the students, who organized a rally in support of HIV and AIDS understanding. We went to the village just across the street (SOIL is located about 45 minutes southwest of the heart of Delhi. There is much development going on in this area, as well as empty space, small village communities, and shanty towns of immigrant works, mostly from Bangladesh and Nepal, I am told). We walked to the village, then ended up outside of a temple where a few speakers explained about the need for blood testing, and not to shun anyone who is HIV positive. The students will next work with an NGO to bring a medical team to the village for blood testing.

I really want to thank Anil, Sunita, Kanupriya and Mili (if you are reading this blog) for being so welcoming and inspiring.

School of Inspired Leadership

The village that SOIL informally has adopted, tucked in front of the housing complex.

Mother and child from the village across the street from SOIL.

The rally