Beyond her years
In a world brimming with career options, social entrepreneur Harsha Ranvindran, founder and CEO of Ascendance, stands out as a champion for youth, empowering students to align their career paths with their deepest passions and aspirations.
By Afifah Darke
"My career is literally helping students, building young entrepreneurs. There’s nothing more rewarding to do than that."
Undeterred by a crowd of nearly a thousand, Harsha Ravindran exudes an air of poise, confidence and assurance. On stage, her voice resonates with unwavering clarity, her words flow eloquently and movements purposeful.
Not many 21-year-olds are given the opportunity to deliver the closing keynote of a conference, but on the last day of the QS Higher Ed Summit: Asia Pacific 2023, Ravindran stood on the stage in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, proving that age is merely a number.
Two weeks later, in an interview with QS Insights Magazine, Ravindran proclaims her aversion to public speaking, with an almost disarming sincerity in her declaration. “I don’t have that natural confidence or social whizz that some people have,” says Ravindran, who is co-founder and chief marketing officer of Ascendance, an organisation which aims to help students get real-world experiences in careers they are curious and passionate about.
“But I know that I need to be doing [public speaking], if I want to get the message of the work we're doing out there…I do it and I practice, and I do my best at it because I know the person I need to be in order to see this thrive.”
It is evident that Ravindran is dedicated to her work, to the point where she laughingly admits she could be a workaholic. In this year alone, Ravindran, who is currently completing her undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, has travelled to Switzerland, Indonesia, Brunei and the US just for work. Speaking to QS Insights Magazine from Malaysia in a video call, Ravindran says she is happy to be home in Kuala Lumpur, to catch a breather from the intense travelling schedule – but she is far from complaining. “I’m the luckiest person alive. My career is literally helping students, building young entrepreneurs. There’s nothing more rewarding to do than that.”
An unremarkable child
Ravindran’s exposure to the business world began at the age of 11 when her mother, a single parent, made the bold decision to quit her job in finance to become a social entrepreneur. “Being the kid who didn't have a babysitter back then, I would follow my mom and she would take me to events, programmes and meetings. It was by osmosis of being in that very entrepreneurial environment that I learned what entrepreneurship was…and I started gaining some tiny little entrepreneurial skills.”
As she continued to attend these business meetings, the adults naturally included her in their conversations and sought her opinions on matters like graphics and brand campaigns, she says. Unknowingly, this built up Ravindran’s entrepreneurial skills, as well as her self-confidence. “I used to be very shy. Now, as you can see, I’m never able to shut up.”
Ravindran is quick to point out though, that as a child, she was “unremarkable”. “I was not particularly bright or talented [or] exceptional,” she states. She strongly believes that being able to sit front row to conversations amid CEOs, entrepreneurs and decision-makers was key in shaping her perspective on the world - and igniting the spark that led to the founding of Ascendance.
“The logic was, if you could find a way to bring this [experience] to every other student out there around the world, naturally, by the time students were done with college, an entire generation of students [would have] these skills to survive…know what they love doing and have creative clarity because they had the chance to try it out, to actually discover who they were, as well as what they wanted to do.”
Since 2015, Ascendance has worked with over 1,400 schools and communities across 26 countries, with the mission to provide students with hands-on experiences that steer them towards sustainable careers aligned with their interests.
The power of experiential learning
Practically growing up in meeting rooms, Ravindran is probably the poster child of organic experiential learning. “I had the best childhood ever,” she declares. “I had all these opportunities I could explore; I could do what I want. Nobody would force me to figure out what I wanted to do. It was just about learning, exploration and it was just about self-growth.”
Because of this, Ravindran says she is determined to replicate such experiences for youths all around the world – and this is done by partnering with schools. Most, if not all universities have internships as a massive factor in student development, says Ravindran. But internships do not necessarily provide experiential learning, she points out.
“Universities need to move to more guided experiential learning programming which pulls together interdisciplinary knowledge and pulls together mentorship opportunities that put together more personalised learning opportunities,” she says. “Unless someone is there [during the internships] to guide the student on what they're learning, the student may not be able to retain or even understand what is happening to them as well as they can sense.”
This is where Ascendance comes in to fill in the gap.
“Everyday I'm learning, everyday I'm growing and I have a career that I love … I want that same feeling to be available to every student out there.”
Decoding Gen Z
The programmes provided by Ascendance focus on a three-pronged approach. Firstly, Ravindran explains, learning is personalised, where students discover their habits, and understand their behaviours, through the help of mentors. The current generation of students are a “very self-aware generation”, says Ravindran, and if they don’t feel like they are being “challenged” or not being listened to, there is no sense of responsibility for learning in a classroom. Next, Ascendance focuses on students getting their hands dirty to deliver projects based on the businesses they are interested in. Giving students a sense of ownership is very important, stresses Ravindran. The final focus is on community, where students reflect on what their careers can do for society and how their future jobs can contribute towards solving global issues. Gen Zs are global citizens, says Ravindran, which is why their careers need to be connected to the larger world.
For a generation born into a world of unprecedented technology and advancements, Ravindran believes that the “basic need” for her peers is to have a career that they love. “Everyday I'm learning, everyday I'm growing and I have a career that I love…I want that same feeling to be available to every student out there,” she says. “They have to be able to wake up every day doing something that they love, feeling like they are growing and learning about themselves.”
Not just a kid in a room of adults
Ravindran’s eyes light up every time she speaks of her work. The possibilities are endless when young people are guided meaningfully and purposefully – she believes that strongly and she wants the world to know that too.
Summing up her childhood, she tells QS Insights Magazine: “I never felt like I was just a kid in a room of adults.”
This emotion also clearly resonated during her keynote speech in Kuala Lumpur. Ravindran stood among towering presences in the higher education industry – chancellors, presidents and CEOs – but her voice never faltered as she stood her ground, ending her speech with questions intending to probe meaningful reflection within the audience.
“How were you like when you were a student? What were the things that inspired you? What were the things that motivate you? What were the opportunities available today that you wished you had?
“Because at the end of the day, the issue is not that students are unintelligent, it’s that students lack experience,” she continues.
“If you can give students a taste of the world as it is, they will be so much more grateful for the opportunities and learnings that you are providing, because at the end of the day, we need the support of universities, we need education to make us better. And what we’re trying to do, is get students to appreciate that more, by showing them the reality of the world."
This article was published originally in QS Insights Magazine 12.