Alisha Sonawalla - pushing the frontiers of technology
Alisha Sonawalla was part of the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad’s first graduating batch, the Class of 2014. Since then, she has accumulated an extraordinary set of experiences during a gap year and subsequently at university in New York City before joining Microsoft in Seattle, USA this summer (2019). These experiences range from heading projects geared at exposing girls in rural India to coding and internet technologies to designing English language development programmes in Tajikistan, and most recently, to spending summers in Silicon Valley working on self-driving cars.
Alisha is currently working as a software engineer at Microsoft after pursuing a dual degree – a Bachelor of Science in computer science and a Bachelor of Science in management science with a concentration in data science (both from New York University (NYU)). She has received the Dean’s Honour Roll for securing a grade point average in the top 10% of the class. Outside the classroom, she has dabbled in multiple projects including building her own robot news-reader and experimenting with developing a secure cloud-sharing service.
“The Academy helped me become comfortable with making mistakes and encouraged me to focus on identifying solutions instead,” Alisha said. “That, and my gap year experiences ignited in me a passion for tech and an entrepreneurial spirit, and ever since, I have been excited about building products to push the frontiers of technology forward.”
“It was an exciting time to be in the mecca of tech,” she reminisces. “I led the development of a large-scale mapping service to deliver real-time, preemptive updates to the vehicle, allowing them to make more efficient routing decisions and enhanced ride safety. As one of the early engineers in the self-driving car space, it was amazing to have the opportunity to contribute towards the future of tech.”
“The girls’ newfound confidence became my motivation as I travelled across India and to Tajikistan conducting sessions for women on STEM opportunities,” shares Alisha.
She was also one of 25 female engineers globally who was awarded the "Goldman Sachs Grace Hopper Conference Scholarship" to attend the Grace Hopper Conference, the largest conference for women in tech.
In 2013, while still at the Academy, Alisha travelled across four remote villages of Gujarat to document the livelihood and survival strategies of a lost community, the Devipujaks. Her interviews and field research were compiled into one of the only ethnographic studies done on this marginalised group of people, and she presented her findings at the National Conference on Human Rights organised by the Central University of Gujarat and the Government of India.
In the meantime, Alisha is joining Microsoft as a software engineer on their AI & Mixed Reality team.
“The Academy gave me the space to develop my moral compass by taking on leadership opportunities and experiencing ethical dilemmas first-hand. Being faced with these ethical decisions on a small scale helped me develop a moral compass that guides me through major decisions even today. Moreover, living in a shared space taught me to adapt to different situations, lifestyles and people, which made my transition to NYU, a new city and a different culture seamless.”
Written by Kamini Menon
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APPENDIX
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Samy Natho Jina: Using information technology to better the world
Samy Natho Jina is an International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Year 12 student at the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa. In addition to being an informed global citizen, Samy is a skilled and talented self-taught computer coder. Currently pursuing Information Technology in a Global Society at higher level as part of his IB Diploma, he strives to derive ways through which he can use information technology (IT) to create value in today’s society and tackle social and ethical issues. He says, “Building systems is not enough; for me, considering the impact on the stakeholder’s life is also a key factor.”
Samy’s passion for computers began on his sixth birthday when he received a “slow and old Acer laptop.” He says that because the laptop was too slow to play computer games, he used his time to explore the computer’s settings and discovered all the features that were being offered by Windows XP. As a result of his vivid curiosity and experimental nature, Samy unknowingly installed virus software which caused the computer to crash. Determined to fix his computer, Samy tried all the possible methods to restore it: he sought advice from many adults, attempted creative problem-solving techniques, and even visited a computer scientist to figure out what was happening.
Ultimately, Samy’s curiosity and determination led him to discover that this – dealing with computers and software – was what he wanted to do for a living in the future. Samy now aspires to develop his skills at university through studying software engineering and computer science.
Along with being a hardworking IB student, Samy is constantly working on new applications, coding new projects, and making apps for various companies. The first app he created was for his parents to help their pharmaceutical company handle online business management, archive files and track sales. He created another security software for a non-profit organisation for referencing and tracking individuals for an event. Samy also designed an advanced website for a TEDx event in Mombasa, Kenya where he added security and ticketing features. Samy comments, “As my understanding increases so does my passion.” An extremely driven individual, he also uses online platforms such as OpenClassrooms to learn coding languages like HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, PHP5, jQuery and others, for which he has also gained many certificates. “With each new language I learn, I become more excited about that field,” Samy explains.
Samy believes that in five to 10 years, the whole world will depend more on information technology than it currently does today. He believes that there is a great future in developing modern technologies for medical applications, and wishes to be at the core of the technological development that will advance medical health applications. Samy believes in practical application along with theoretical learning and is working hard to bring about a positive change.
Samy is extremely grateful for the opportunities he has been granted to use his skills for the betterment of the local community with support from the encouraging environment at the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa. Samy says, “For each and every project, I have spent countless nights out of my own free will fixing incorrect lines of code. It is my dream to make sure this talent and passion I have for software development and computers can be used to make this world a better place.”
By Khushboo Shah
A better world through education: The Aga Khan Academies
The International Baccalaureate featured the Aga Khan Academies and our approach to creating home-grown leaders as part of their 50th anniversary commemoration. Watch to learn how the Academies work to transform the communities in which they are located.
AKDN Ambassador hosts Bangladesh government visit to Academy
Student Leadership
The Academies’ programmes aim to develop students who are ethical, public-minded and who possess a pluralistic outlook. Both curricular and enrichment activities work to educate effective home-grown leaders who are actively engaged in their local communities and are aware of the implications of their actions.
Through their participation in enrichment programmes, students are encouraged to take on leadership positions in a variety of different forms (e.g. house leaders, student council, team captains, dorm duties).
Not only do these opportunities provide an environment to explore and enhance skills such as cooperation and problem solving, they also enable students to set personal goals and challenge themselves.
"The conviction that home-grown intellectual leadership of exceptional calibre is the best driver of a society’s destiny, underpins the Ismaili Imamat’s endeavour to create catalytic centres of educational excellence."
News from the Network - AKA Maputo hosts mathematics workshop for parents with Karim Ismail
News from the Network: BBC Africa profiles Aga Khan Academy Mombasa Student Ziyaan Virji
News from the Network: Students Attend Ryerson University DMZ Sandbox Basecamp
Director's Welcome
Director of AcademiesThe Aga Khan Academies are a network of schools being established by His Highness the Aga Khan in countries across South and Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
As the Director of Academies, I have been entrusted with His Highness’s extraordinary vision for the Academies as a global learning community, where young people develop the capacity to become future leaders of civil society.
The underlying idea of the Aga Khan Academies network is to concentrate substantial resources on those exceptional individuals – students and teachers – who have the potential to transform society. When provided with a world-class education, exceptional students from any background can achieve their significant potential and in so doing improve their lives, the lives of their families, their communities, their country and the world.
At this time, we envisage a network of approximately 18 campuses across 14 countries that, when fully developed, will be teaching 14,000 students.
Each Aga Khan Academy will reach out to students of all backgrounds, regardless of culture, race, religion or financial circumstance.
The Academies follow the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, ensuring a global standard of educational excellence and external validation through the annual IB Diploma exams.
The Academies also work to enhance the quality of teaching, the base on which good education rests. Each Aga Khan Academy will provide professional development programmes for teachers and school leaders from within the Academy as well as from government and other schools.
The students in our existing Academies are already achieving exceptional results across domains spanning academics, athletics and the arts. And our alumni, many of whom attend leading universities around the world, are demonstrating a deep sense of social responsibility and a commitment to return to serve their home countries.
Ultimately, we hope that the qualities of good leadership – sound moral judgment, self-discipline, a pluralistic outlook and civic responsibility – are the qualities that will distinguish Aga Khan Academy graduates.
"Our goal, then, is not to provide special education for a privileged elite – but to provide an exceptional education for the truly exceptional." I invite you to explore our website further to learn more about the Aga Khan Academies and the unique and innovative programme they offer.
With warm wishes,
Salim A.L. Bhatia
Director of Academies
