Engineering graduate interested in child development learns the dance between leading with people & managing projects.

Apeksha Rathod is a doer, who has activated her entrepreneurial mindset as a strong-minded girl with an empathetic heart.

“Personal accountability requires mindfulness, acceptance, honesty and courage. Apeksha strives for all these at such a young age,” shares Sujata Sridhar, Business Development Manager at Enterprise.

Apeksha says, “I like learning practically. Learning and putting it to use immediately.” A couple of years back, when a friend challenged her to purchase without using her father’s money, Apeksha did her own rakhi business. “The thought of buying and reselling rakhis did not appeal to me. So to add a personal touch I made the rakhis with the help of a few friends. I liked the idea of creating something of my own,” she says.

Apeksha enrolled into PICT, a renowned college in Pune for Computer Science because her uncle suggested it based on her inclinations to coding in junior college. While she enjoyed her first year, as she moved through her college journey, she realised that she was not interested in computers and coding. The definition of extracurriculars for most students in college equals sports, clubs, hackathons and fests. These opportunities did not interest Apeksha, so she created an opportunity for herself. She decided to get involved with something beyond college which she thoroughly enjoyed, and which helped her discover her passion. 

Once, in a conversation with her friend Dhruv Gupta, he shared his observation that Apeksha thoroughly enjoys spending time with children and asked if she was interested in exploring opportunities around working with children. Apeksha, being the doer she is, immediately contacted a family friend who ran a kids activity centre and convinced her to let her work there. This experience was like an epiphany for Apeksha, she always knew she enjoyed being around kids but now she discovered her interest in child development. Thus, began her journey of creating opportunities in the field of education. 

In 2019, 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. #Karo came as an opportunity to Apeksha and she grabbed it right away. She took on the responsibility to organize and host a space for the kids. She ended up planning and executing the entire kids zone at the fest along with Purushot Reddy, an Enterprise Fellow. 

Apeksha realized the impact of this experience was two fold. Not only did it align her with her interest to work with children but also helped her build her confidence. She built her connections and bonds with other young people who were working on innovative things aside from their college work.

A few months after the #karo experience, she decided to join the Enterprise India Fellowship, and shared, “The people are so nice. It gives a positive vibe. When I worked there, I could see myself doing things I never imagined I could. My goal is to become a person who’s not afraid of anything and make a difference. I think enterprise can help me get out of my shell and help me meet new people and how to talk to them.” 

Throughout the fellowship experience, Apeksha gave it her all to get out of the shell and built new connections by working on 8 projects including 2 client projects with Amrita Kaur – an Ayurvedic Chef and Instagram Influencer and Ruby Jhunjhunwala – a Ceramic Artist, who is the Proprietor of Adipa. 

Apeksha brought with her, the enthusiasm to work with little children and started her fellowship journey by co-founding #karo playdates with her fellow Partners, Mrunmayee Padgimwar and Yukti Gupta. This project brought the #karo mindset of ‘learning by doing to parents and their bonds with their children. They organized spaces to curate and conduct interesting workshops for the little ones where they learned new concepts while spending time and connecting with their parents. 

Although Apeksha knew what she cared about and passionately worked with projects that involved children, she was always open to different opportunities to learn and grow. One such instance is when she jumped on a chance to work with Ruby Jhunjhunwala, Proprietor of Adipa, a renowned ceramic artist in Pune, to help her promote her tableware pottery. So far, this was her most favourite project. The scope of the project was to create a landing page for the business and help curate an experience: make & take. Here people could come to the workshop, create tableware with their hands with guidance from experts and take it home once ready.

Apeksha went way above and beyond the scope of the project. She did her research on other ceramic artists and how they go about their online businesses and pricing, created the client’s website by finding strategic ways to display the multiple products effectively. She also worked with the business team in curating the ‘make and take’ experience.  

“Apeksha worked with me on promoting tableware pottery which I started making in my studio only during the lockdown. I was very impressed with clear focused thinking and project planning. Despite never having any exposure to ceramics she systematically jumped into learning the special nuisances of handmade pottery. Then did market research of price points and our clients before finally making a small website for our products. She also arranged the photoshoot and displayed herself and enthusiastically learned how to edit and prepare the images. Apeksha is an amazing team player with confidence and quick to take action,” shared Ruby Jhunjhunwala.

The one month project turned into a 3-month journey, and by the end of it, Apeksha was offered to join the Adipa team to continue working to strategize and expand the business online.

Parallelly, to continue working with kids, she also started a personal project to curate programs for 4-6-year-olds, where sessions are designed to help develop the logical & creative skills of the child and to help them develop holistically.

Before joining the fellowship, Apeksha had shared that she wants to come out of her shell and talk with people. One year later, she feels that she shares, “I have always been a reserved person. I wanted to get out of my shell. After working on multiple projects with multiple people, I feel that I have become bold & fearless.” 

Apeksha Rathod

Hometown: Pune, Maharashtra

College: Pune Institute of Computer Technology

Subject: Computer Engineering

Interests/Cares About: child education, nature, animal welfare

Fellowship Span: Aug 2020- Aug 2021

Plan after Graduation:

-Worked on 8+ projects including 6 Enterprise projects like the Green Room & #karo playdates, and 2 client projects with Amrita of Life – an ayurvedic chef and Adipa – a ceramic ware company.

-Started a personal project to curate programs for 4-6 year olds, where sessions are designed to help develop the logical & creative skills of the child and to help them develop holistically.

-Created 9 blogs, and 2 podcasts by leveraging the monthly reflection-based content creation process (Conflexion) at the Fellowship where Partners actively learn to reflect on their learnings and feelings and harvest them into blogs, videos and/or podcasts.

Next Steps post Fellowship:

– Working with Adipa on social media, branding and design, and

– Supporting the Enterprise team to facilitate and guide different student teams through their projects, and also

– Prototyping her personal project to curate holistic development programs for 4-6 year olds

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“Apeksha, is the ultimate doer. She gets things done and does not leave them till they’re DONE DONE DONE,”

Yusuf Hakim
Co-Founder, Enterprise India Fellowship

Throughout her journey, she has built relations, understood how to work with people in a team, practised being a reliable team member and has now joined the Enterprise team to facilitate and guide the different student teams through their projects and teamwork. Apeksha has truly mastered the practice of doing and is now helping other young people do the same by supporting them and also challenging them when necessary. 

“Apeksha, is the ultimate doer. She gets things done and does not leave them till they’re DONE DONE DONE,” shares Yusuf Hakim, Co-Founder of the Enterprise India Fellowship.

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

A few months after the #karo experience, she decided to join the Enterprise India Fellowship, and shared, “The people are so nice. It gives a positive vibe. When I worked there, I could see myself doing things I never imagined I could. My goal is to become a person who’s not afraid of anything and make a difference. I think enterprise can help me get out of my shell and help me meet new people and how to talk to them.” 

Throughout the fellowship experience, Apeksha gave it her all to get out of the shell and built new connections by working on 8 projects including 2 client projects with Amrita Kaur – an Ayurvedic Chef and Instagram Influencer and Ruby Jhunjhunwala – a Ceramic Artist, who is the Proprietor of Adipa. 

Apeksha brought with her, the enthusiasm to work with little children and started her fellowship journey by co-founding #karo playdates with her fellow Partners, Mrunmayee Padgimwar and Yukti Gupta. This project brought the #karo mindset of ‘learning by doing to parents and their bonds with their children. They organized spaces to curate and conduct interesting workshops for the little ones where they learned new concepts while spending time and connecting with their parents. 

Although Apeksha knew what she cared about and passionately worked with projects that involved children, she was always open to different opportunities to learn and grow. One such instance is when she jumped on a chance to work with Ruby Jhunjhunwala, Proprietor of Adipa, a renowned ceramic artist in Pune, to help her promote her tableware pottery. So far, this was her most favourite project. The scope of the project was to create a landing page for the business and help curate an experience: make & take. Here people could come to the workshop, create tableware with their hands with guidance from experts and take it home once ready. 

Apeksha went way above and beyond the scope of the project. She did her research on other ceramic artists and how they go about their online businesses and pricing, created the client’s website by finding strategic ways to display the multiple products effectively. She also worked with the business team in curating the ‘make and take’ experience.  

“Apeksha worked with me on promoting tableware pottery which I started making in my studio only during the lockdown. I was very impressed with clear focused thinking and project planning. Despite never having any exposure to ceramics she systematically jumped into learning the special nuisances of handmade pottery. Then did market research of price points and our clients before finally making a small website for our products. She also arranged the photoshoot and displayed herself and enthusiastically learned how to edit and prepare the images. Apeksha is an amazing team player with confidence and quick to take action,” shared Ruby Jhunjhunwala.

The one month project turned into a 3-month journey, and by the end of it, Apeksha was offered to join the Adipa team to continue working to strategize and expand the business online.

Parallelly, to continue working with kids, she also started a personal project to curate programs for 4-6-year-olds, where sessions are designed to help develop the logical & creative skills of the child and to help them develop holistically.

Before joining the fellowship, Apeksha had shared that she wants to come out of her shell and talk with people. One year later, she feels that she shares, “I have always been a reserved person. I wanted to get out of my shell. After working on multiple projects with multiple people, I feel that I have become bold & fearless.” 

Apkesha Rathod

Hometown: Pune, Maharashtra

College: Pune Institute of Computer Technology

Subject: Computer Engineering

Interests/Cares About: child education, nature, animal welfare

Fellowship Span: Aug 2020- Aug 2021

Plan after Graduation:

-Worked on 8+ projects including 6 Enterprise projects like the Green Room & #karo playdates, and 2 client projects with Amrita of Life – an ayurvedic chef and Adipa – a ceramic ware company.

-Started a personal project to curate programs for 4-6 year olds, where sessions are designed to help develop the logical & creative skills of the child and to help them develop holistically.

-Created 9 blogs, and 2 podcasts by leveraging the monthly reflection-based content creation process (Conflexion) at the Fellowship where Partners actively learn to reflect on their learnings and feelings and harvest them into blogs, videos and/or podcasts.

Next Steps post Fellowship:

– Working with Adipa on social media, branding and design, and

– Supporting the Enterprise team to facilitate and guide different student teams through their projects, and also

– Prototyping her personal project to curate holistic development programs for 4-6 year olds

View Profile