Kushan Nanavati, Swapan Prajapati, Manan Shah, Nirmeet Patel, Founders: Baroda Toppers' Association

The young trio, all toppers in their respective streams, were always inclined to do something for the betterment of the future students and with this motive in mind, formed the association in 2008. “It was an instant idea and we materialized it immediately and formed the association with an aim to help students, especially those who appear for board exams,” said Swapan Prajapati, President of BTA, in conversation with YourStory. New BTA President: Apurva Shah (3rd year Comp. Engg. MSU Baroda) and Vice-President : Avani Shah and Payal Agrawal (both 2nd year M.B.B.S., B.M.C., VADODARA)

The trio visited different schools and leading coaching classes in Vadodara and helped students there to overcome their problems. In its quest to counsel students towards successful professional careers, BTA undertakes various initiatives including conducting aptitude tests, debates and quiz competitions, personal counseling sessions, online consultation through mail and parents meetings. “We visit different schools and leading tuition classes in the city and show the students a small presentation in form of video slides and then attempt to improve their writing, memory skills with our own scientific techniques,” said Kushan Nanavati Vice President of BTA. He added that the special emphasis was on how to help students help get rid of their fear of exams.

The trio said that the idea to start the association came to their mind when they observed the mental pressure in the minds of students appearing for board exams as The Day approached. “We faced similar problems in our schooling days and overcame them. So in order to create the same environment and confidence among school students we formed BTA to help them to overcome the fear and be successful in their board exams,” said the trio.

Besides conducting counseling and training sessions for students, BTA also puts up the list of city and state toppers on their website in order to help students get in touch with their seniors to seek guidance. “We have updated the list of Class 12th toppers of Science and Commerce stream from 2005 to 2008 on our website www.btabaroda.org and continue to update it on a continuous basis with various other additional information about the city and its educational prospects,” said Manan Shah, Vice President of BTA who looks after the technical aspects of the association.

The awesome threesome are currently pursuing medical degrees from Vadodara and plan to open other branches in Ankleshwar and Bharuch in the next one year. They are also training more batches of toppers to be a part of their association in order to increase the scope and reach of their initiative. Going forward they also have plans of starting a helpline where students can seek instant help and counseling on the phone.

This one year young association is also working for social causes in Baroda like health education, student-parent relationship, economical help to SSGH patients and other public awareness programs.

YourStory wishes the three young social entrepreneurs the very best in their noble endeavours and hopes that they create a whole new breed of successful, bright and confident youth in India.