December 31, 2012
In a rare honour, Jalnidh Kaur, a student from Punjab, has won Rhodes Scholarship for the year 2013. It is the world’s oldest and the most prestigious international graduate scholarship program.
She is one of the five Indian candidates shortlisted for pursuing their post-graduation at University of Oxford, UK. The scholarship amounts to funding of all the tuition fees for two years of postgraduation, air travels, plus a maintenance stipend worth over 10 lacs.
Rhodes Scholarship is given to youth of outstanding intellect, character, leadership, and commitment to service. It support students who demonstrate a strong propensity to emerge as ‘leaders for the world’s future’.
Kaur is presently pursuing final year in Economics honours at St Stephen’s College, Delhi. She now intends to do MPhil in Economics at University of Oxford, UK.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Govt. of India and Sagarika Ghosh, eminent journalist are among some of the earlier bright Rhodes scholars from India.
Kaur, a resident of Ludhiana, is the only child in the family. Her father is an Associate Professor at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana and mother is a Lecturer at Guru Nanak Girls College, Model Town.
She has recently also aced in GRE by scoring 330 out of 340 and that too without any professional coaching. Jalnidh is also the founder member of G 65 started by pan-India NGO, Sukrit to groom the youth for competitive examinations free of cost.
Earlier, she was honoured by the University of Hawaii, USA with the title of Junior Fellow, the East-West Center. In addition to formal academic prizes, Jalnidh Kaur achieved second prize in the ‘Budding Economist’ Quiz at Confluence National Economics Festival and pioneered the business plan ‘EurekaWow’ which promotes the concept of senior-to-junior knowledge sharing.
Alongside her academic work, Jalnidh founded Éclair, now a country-wide organisation with over 100 volunteers offering informal schooling for children living on the streets.
Author of three books namely – ‘Divine Pills’, ‘Work is more fun than fun’ and ‘Economic History of India’, Jalnidh Kaur, has studied in Guru Nanak Public School, Sarabha Nagar upto matric and high school in Sacred Heart Convent School.
She served as Youth Co-ordinator for the Punjab division of the Civil Society Against Drugs movement during the Punjab Assembly Elections in 2012.
Longer-term, she would like to help combat the extreme social disparities in the world around her through contributing to value-based interventions based on social science research.
