City girl awarded US $500 for art work on gender equality

Lucknow, August 19 : Shivangi Pathak, a student of class XII of City Montessori School, Gomti Nagar Extension campus was awarded US $500 for working on community projects under the ‘Change Makers Academy program’ conducted by The Vidya Project, USA.Shivangi chose Art as a form of activism to spread awareness on Gender Equality and made a portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg whose experience with sexism inspired her to work as a lawyer. The program required presenting a case study of an activist who fought against inequality. Shivangi’s dedication and the determination to fight for gender equality through Art led to her being one of the few students selected for the grant.

The ‘Change Makers Academy program’ featured guest lectures and interactive sessions with activists, entrepreneurs and young policy makers from USA, Africa and Europe including Mahila Abidi and Karma Ekmeji, both renowned activists. The topics of discussion included ‘Embracing activism in the age of Social Media’, ‘Mobilizing communities through art and story telling’, ‘Reimagining the future through entrepreneurship and innovation’.Senior Principal of CMS Gomti Nagar Extension Campus, Ms Manjit Batra and Principal, Mrs Sangeeta Banerjee congratulated Shivangi and said, ‘We are proud of Shivangi’s achievement. Apart from being a brilliant student, she is an activist at this young age and has always taken active part in gender equality initiatives’.

Dr Jagdish Gandhi, Founder Manager of CMS congratulated Shivangi and said, ‘CMS lays special emphasis on gender equality and organises special seminars and conferences to spread awareness among the children about the gender issues. This has sensitised our students and they actively participate in gender awareness programmes worldwide with full confidence.’