An explorer’s journey from being stubborn to becoming a team player while she builds and nurtures her connections

Nehalika has a long history of being involved and challenging herself to grow by doing things beyond her academics. During her schooling, she was the captain of the school hockey team and was entrusted with the leadership and responsibility of maintaining a constant stream of motivation for her teammates. In college, she played in different sports like rowing and was deeply involved with organizing college festivals.

Through all these experiences, she realized that she wanted to get engaged and be involved in different activities to explore more, meet new people and learn about business concepts.

When she heard about a new venture in town, the Enterprise India Fellowship, she immediately signed up and took her parents for a meeting with Aditya Jhunjhunwala, a co-founder of the fellowship. It is a 12-month youth entrepreneurship program for young people to build skills and their stories by working on different projects, with guidance from mentors. 

At the end of that discussion, it was decided that her elder sister Khushbu would join at that time as it would benefit her more and Nehalika could apply the following year. 

That being said, Nehalika made active efforts to be involved through her sister’s fellowship experience. 

When the Khushbu and the Enterprise Partners (students of the Enterprise India Fellowship) hosted #karo – an event with live workshop takers organized to celebrate the art of doing and to encourage people to learn by doing, Neha joined in to provide moral support, and in a few days, the team trusted her to manage the official Instagram handle by strategizing, editing videos, creating and posting content. Shortly after #karo, Nehalika joined the fellowship herself.

Throughout her fellowship experience, she worked on 6+ projects including 4 Enterprise projects like the Tinker Fest (a workshop with DIY activities for kids that she co-created) & Tiki Taka (a 32 person football tournament organized by other Enterprise Partners for which Nehalika helped with sales and designing collaterals), and 2 client projects with Total Coffee, one of India’s largest online coffee marketplaces and Dharohar, an NGO in Udaipur that facilitates corporate volunteering programs in the realm of education and environment.

Nehalika and another Enterprise Partner Rohan Sarode co-created Fever Of Treasure – a day-long treasure hunt designed to bring people together. They invested a lot of time in designing the entire experience, but the universe had other plans for them. Just after they finished ideation, the country went into a lockdown. When things looked like they would not change for a while, they decided to adapt to the situation. They took inspiration and creatively remodelled the event into an online scavenger hunt, to help families and communities bond and make people get up from in front of their TVs. They had some successful iterations before they decided to stop working on the project, as it had deviated from what they were excited about and they struggled to monetize it.

Nehalika shared that the most meaningful project for her was a client project with Dharohar, an NGO based in Udaipur, India that organizes and hosts corporate volunteer training programs in the fields of education and environment. She, along with two fellow Partners worked with the leadership team at Dharohar on a day to day basis to conduct user research to build a social media strategy. It started off by deeply understanding the organisation and how they work and at the end of 3 months with two meetings a day, the bond between the two teams became so natural it was hard to tell, Dharohar and Enterprise partners came from different entities. 

Ankita Parashar, Business Partner and Marketing Lead at Enterprise, who has followed Nehalika’s journey closely, shared, “Neha radiates confidence with an openness to learn and explore. I’ve seen her working during #karo and she’s been at it making sure that things happen on time, when they didn’t, she was there to fix what could be.”

Through this project, Neha saw a lot of growth in herself. She learned to focus on details. Her productivity went high. She learned the importance of not giving up. But most importantly, she feels she learned the importance of connecting with people you work with, as by the end of the project, the Enterprise Partners and the Dharohar team had a bond so natural that it was hard to tell they came from different entities.

Nehalika Jethwani

Hometown: Pune, Maharashtra

College: MIT World Peace University 

Subject: Electronics & Communication Engineering

Interests/Cares About: Using social media well, building connections

Fellowship Span: July 2019- Aug 2021

Fellowship Activities Sneak Peak:

-Worked on 6+ projects including 4 Enterprise projects like the Tinker Fest & #karo, and 2 client projects with Total Coffee, one of India’s largest online coffee marketplaces and Dharohar, an NGO in Udaipur that facilitates corporate volunteering programs in the realm of education and environment
-Co-created “Fever of Treasure” an online experience with a fellow Partner (fellow student at Enterprise) to bring together families, friends and communities to spend some quality time and bond through engaging online activities like scavenger hunts during the pandemic 

Plan after Graduation:

– Working with High Spirits, a social club that hosts different gigs, to enhance the customer experience by guiding them on what days to visit based on the gig of interest to them

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“Neha radiates confidence with an openness to learn and explore. I’ve seen her working during #karo and she’s been at it making sure that things happen on time, when they didn’t, she was there to fix what could be.”

Ankita Parashar
Business Partner and Marketing Lead, Enterprise India Fellowship

Post this experience, Nehalika realized the need to take some space for herself, and to explore how to balance time better. She shared, “the best part of the enterprise is that even if you take some space for yourself when you come back, everyone is here. All I had to do was show up and do my bit. The team is so dependable, and they helped me stand back up again.” 

After taking some time off, she hopped on to a crisp four-week client project with Total Coffee, where contributed immensely based on her rich experience working on several projects 

“Nehalika was very helpful throughout the process. Though we did not get to speak much due to her exams, her willingness to learn things about a new industry and getting things done is what boosted the project. As I have worked with her earlier, I knew the deadlines were going to meet on time and yes they did!” shares Anish Kale, Head of Opportunities at Total Coffee, and also an Enterprise Fellow.

Through the different projects, sessions, peer learning the highs and the lows, and conversations with mentors, Nehalika has blossomed and felt herself grow in many ways- especially in the degree of openness to new ideas, people and their approaches, and even towards change. “When I joined the enterprise, I was very stubborn, but over the years, I have become open and accepting towards change. I was not a team player, I wanted things to be my way, but after the many experiences I’ve had, I take extra efforts to work and collaborate with the team’s efforts,” Nehalika shared. 

Interviewer: Akash Bhalerao
Author: Jagruti Jethwani
Video Editor: Rahul Devkar
Story Editors:  Aditya Jhunjhunwala, Akash Bhalerao, Ankita Parashar, Lubaina Cementwala, Yusuf Hakim
Webpage Designer: Dnyanesh Chandewar

Throughout her fellowship experience, she worked on 6+ projects including 4 Enterprise projects like the Tinker Fest (a workshop with DIY activities for kids that she co-created) & Tiki Taka (a 32 person football tournament organized by other Enterprise Partners for which Nehalika helped with sales and designing collaterals), and 2 client projects with Total Coffee, one of India’s largest online coffee marketplaces and Dharohar, an NGO in Udaipur that facilitates corporate volunteering programs in the realm of education and environment.

Nehalika and another Enterprise Partner Rohan Sarode co-created Fever Of Treasure – a day-long treasure hunt designed to bring people together. They invested a lot of time in designing the entire experience, but the universe had other plans for them. Just after they finished ideation, the country went into a lockdown. When things looked like they would not change for a while, they decided to adapt to the situation, took inspiration and creatively remodelled the event. Into an online scavenger hunt, to help families and communities bond and make people get up from in front of their TVs.They had some successful iterations before they decided to stop working on the project, as it had deviated from what they were excited about and they struggled to monetize it.

Nehalika shared that the most meaningful project for her was a client project with Dharohar, an NGO based in Udaipur, India that organizes and hosts corporate volunteer training programs in the fields of education and environment. She, along with two fellow Partners worked with the leadership team at Dharohar on a day to day basis to conduct user research to build a social media strategy. It started off by deeply understanding the organisation and how they work and at the end of 3 months with two meetings a day, the bond between the two teams became so natural it was hard to tell, Dharohar and Enterprise partners came from different entities. 

Ankita Parashar, Business Partner and Marketing Lead at Enterprise, who has followed Nehalika’s journey closely, shared, “Neha radiates confidence with an openness to learn and explore. I’ve seen her working during #karo and she’s been at it making sure that things happen on time, when they didn’t, she was there to fix what could be.”

Through this project, Neha saw a lot of growth in herself. She learned to focus on details. Her productivity went high. She learned the importance of not giving up. But most importantly, she feels she learned the importance of connecting with people you work with, as by the end of the project, the Enterprise Partners and the Dharohar team had a bond so natural that it was hard to tell they came from different entities.

Nehalika Jethwani

Hometown: Pune, Maharashtra

College: MIT World Peace University 

Subject: Electronics & Communication Engineering

Interests/Cares About: using social media well, building connections

Fellowship Span: July 2019- Aug 2021

Fellowship Activities Sneak Peak:

-Worked on 6+ projects including 4 Enterprise projects like the Tinker Fest & #karo, and 2 client projects with Total Coffee, one of India’s largest online coffee marketplaces and Dharohar, an NGO in Udaipur that facilitates corporate volunteering programs in the realm of education and environment
-Co-created “Fever of Treasure” an online experience with a fellow Partner (fellow student at Enterprise) to bring together families, friends and communities to spend some quality time and bond through engaging online activities like scavenger hunts during the pandemic 

Plan after Graduation:

– Working with High Spirits, a social club that hosts different gigs, to enhance the customer experience by guiding them on what days to visit based on the gig of interest to them

View Profile