Anatomy of a Dream: Words from my Time at NIIT Foundation

We often hear about entrepreneurship in the context of tech startups and business incubators, spaces filled with laptops, energy drinks, and young men from privileged backgrounds. Very few consider what it looks like for someone who has spent their whole life being told that the only secure path is a steady job. What does it take to nurture a dream where one is seldom thought possible?

For three weeks, I had the privilege to find out more about these lives. As a part of the BITS Design School Community Project, I immersed myself in the world of ChangeMaker Academy (CMA), an initiative by NIIT Foundation (NF). My journey was about discovering how a community of young people that are often overlooked by mainstream society are finding new ways to envision their own futures in ways different from those around them.

NIIT Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to creating livelihood opportunities for India's underserved youth. Its ChangeMaker Academy (CMA) is a holistic program designed to transform participants into socially conscious entrepreneurs. The curriculum includes blending essential life skills with design thinking and business fundamentals. This journey equips graduates with the leadership and business acumen to build sustainable ventures, solve pressing community challenges and also create jobs for others.

I showed up to NIIT Foundation's Head Office with my designer's toolkit and many questions buzzing in my head. The plan seemed straightforward: figure out what CMA was all about and help NIIT Foundation launch it in Gurgaon.

Simple, right?

Wrong.

Within hours, I realised that understanding CMA wasn't possible by reading curriculum documents or sitting in a few classes. It was an ecosystem, where people were working toward something bigger than themselves. To really get it, I needed to understand everyone involved.

Something clicked as I dove deeper into the program. CMA is designed to take young people from underserved communities, and help them become socially conscious entrepreneurs and community leaders.

CMA doesn't just teach you how to be your own boss. It teaches you how to create opportunities for others. Students are encouraged to launch projects that directly benefit their communities through a five-stage journey from deep personal reflection to launching sustainable ventures that actually matter.

Once I wrapped my head around the curriculum, I was eager to meet the people behind it all. The core CMA team at the Head Office in Delhi: Tulika Mehra, Atanu Patra, and Kashish Deshlan welcomed me with open arms and endless patience for my questions.

What struck me most about our conversations wasn't the impressive statistics but the genuine, instinctive empathy for these young people. You could feel their passion in every story they told, every challenge they described, and every success they celebrated.

This wasn't just a program they'd designed, it was a mission they believed in deeply.

And so my first real moment of clarity about the students didn't occur in a meeting room; it happened in a classroom in Delhi. I sat down with students who were five months into the ChangeMaker Academy, expecting to ask questions, but I found myself listening to young people who spoke with a level of maturity and strategic vision that was years beyond their age.

They were ambitious, digitally savvy, and hungry for independence. Still, beneath that drive was a quiet resilience. Most were juggling their studies with tight household budgets and immense social pressure.

And then it hit me. These confident, articulate individuals were the ‘after’ photo. Their growth was so profound that I couldn't use them as a benchmark. To understand the program's true magic, I needed to see the ‘before’.

So, I started talking to new joiners, and that’s when the full picture snapped into focus. The contrast was staggering:

• New students often arrived with fuzzy ambitions. Five months in, they spoke with laser-sharp clarity about their goals, backed by a real sense of purpose.
• The initial uncertainty I saw in newcomers had melted away, replaced by a striking confidence and an eagerness to work with others.
• The initial focus on personal financial success had evolved into a deep-seated motivation for social responsibility. They weren't just building businesses; they were designing solutions for their communities.

What I was witnessing wasn't just a list of skills gained. It was a profound personal evolution, and it proved that CMA wasn't just a program, it was a catalyst.

It was only by connecting these dots that I could return to my core objective of catalyzing meaningful change on the ground. I finally decided to step into the shoes of the mobilizers, essentially one of the first points of contact for students.

I went on to interact with about 100 individuals from CMA’s target demographic. I asked them many questions on what they thought about entrepreneurship and community upliftment, and I realized something through my conversations.

In Gurgaon, the landscape is completely different from Delhi

The student body here was a mix of backgrounds, ranging from the children of migrant laborers to families settled for generations. What united them was the immediate, crushing weight of Gurgaon's high cost of living. Here, the dream of entrepreneurship was constantly clashing with the urgent need for a steady paycheck.

This environment creates a powerful current that pushes young people away from the uncertainty of entrepreneurship. The financial pressure to contribute to household income makes starting a business feel like an impossible risk.

Even for those who dared to dream, a fundamental question loomed: how? They had ideas, maybe a small shop, possibly a local service, but none of them had a roadmap or any knowledge on how to even get started.

This was my key takeaway from Gurgaon. It’s not a lack of ambition holding them back. It's a wall built from financial pressure, systemic risk, and a simple lack of know-how.

Plagued by these problems, I consulted the center staff and mobilizers on the ground over lunch. They confirmed what I had learnt from the students.

The dream of entrepreneurship was constantly clashing with the immediate need for a steady paycheck.

The most pressing concern among the staff was financial. As one center head told me, "How can they dream of starting a business when they need to earn money for their family today?" This wasn't a theoretical problem, it was the daily reality that made CMA a "hard sell." The staff knew that quick pitches wouldn't work. To convince a family to support a child's long-term entrepreneurial journey, they needed something more powerful:

The staff and mobilizers needed real, tangible stories of success.

They wanted to point to graduates who had launched businesses and created jobs. They wanted to share authentic stories that would inspire trust and make the dream feel achievable.

After learning more about the curriculum and its focus on personal growth, several staff members told me they wanted to enroll themselves. They saw the value in the life skills and sense of purpose CMA fosters for anyone seeking to make an impact. It was the ultimate validation.

Staring at this complex wall of systemic barriers, I felt the initial paralysis of a young designer: the problem felt too big, too entrenched. It was tempting to feel overwhelmed. However, this is where design thinking teaches you not to solve the entire system at once, but to find the most effective leverage point. I couldn't change the economic reality of Gurgaon, but I could address the "lack of know-how."

I quickly realised there was a fundamental lack of clear, accessible information about the very program designed to help students take that first step. My purpose became clear. My intervention couldn't be at the end of their journey, tackling the first and most frustrating barrier of all: uncertainty. This uncertainty created hesitation, and I knew promising candidates were slipping away.

The idea that finally stuck came from an unlikely place. During a casual chat, my dad, hearing my frustration, mentioned how salespeople use chatbots to explain complex products. At first, I brushed it off. A chatbot? It felt too simple, almost a gimmick. However I realised I kept being asked the same questions over and over, and the potential of a tireless, always-available digital assistant began to crystallize.

My skepticism faded completely after a pivotal chat with the CMA team. They not only validated the need but helped me see the bigger picture. Based on all my conversations, I realized a chatbot could provide value in very specific ways:

• Instant Access: The bot could deliver quick, 24/7 answers. This directly tackled the information gap causing so much hesitation. Students could get clear answers immediately, reducing the chance they'd lose interest.
• Gen Z Targeting: It could use engaging, informal language and interactive features like polls. Instead of a dry pamphlet, this would be an engaging experience that met young people on platforms like WhatsApp, making the program feel more approachable.
• Multilingual Support: Crucially, it could be programmed to answer questions in multiple languages. With so many students from diverse backgrounds, especially the children of migrant laborers in Gurgaon, a single-language approach was a huge barrier. This feature would make CMA truly inclusive and accessible, ensuring no one was left out because of language.

Motivated, and despite my limited technical background, I decided to take on the challenge. I dove into the world of AI, researching lightweight, affordable tools. I was able to create a simple prototype that could answer basic questions in a natural, conversational way.

Through this journey, I came to see the chatbot not as a technical project, but as a design intervention. It was a small tool with a big purpose: to empower every single stakeholder in the CMA ecosystem with the clarity and confidence to take the next step.

It wasn’t just a technical exercise; it was an act of translation—using empathy and systemic understanding to create something tangible and useful. It proved to me that the most powerful design interventions are often not grand, complex solutions, but simple, targeted tools that meet people where they are.

This journey with ChangeMaker Academy (CMA) reshaped my understanding of what it means to be a designer. This experience crystallised a core belief: design is needed most for the unserved and underserved. My time with CMA convinced me that too many designers focus on serving a tiny, privileged slice of the population, while our greatest impact lies in using our expertise to uplift those who can benefit most.

I also learned that with the growing use of AI, innovation doesn't just mean creating new things; it means making knowledge and technology accessible to billions. The power of a tool is not in its complexity but in its ability to democratize access. This became clear when I saw how a simple WhatsApp chatbot could provide value at the grassroots level. It was a practical example of how AI can be leveraged properly to serve the diverse needs of Indian society.

This experience has profoundly shaped my understanding of design’s role in social innovation. It’s not about swooping in with solutions. It’s about listening, co-creating, and building tools that empower people to become the heroes of their own stories. I leave with more questions than answers, each one a starting point for ongoing inquiry:

• How can we design metrics for social impact that capture profound transformations in confidence and community mindset, not just economic output?
• As AI becomes more accessible, how do we responsibly deploy these tools in underserved communities to augment, rather than replace, vital human mentorship and cultural connection?
• What is the designer’s role in bridging the gap between successful grassroots interventions like CMA and the formal policies that could help them scale sustainably?