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Non-conformist · First-generation learner

Building the paths
she once needed herself.

A youth, gender & leadership practitioner opening real career pathways for first-generation learners from rural and tribal India.

See the work ↓New Delhi · working across Madhya Pradesh
Sheetal Sinha
16+
years of youth-led
change behind her work
Now
Synergy Sansthan,
Madhya Pradesh
Scroll↓
Youth✦Gender✦Leadership✦First-generation✦Opportunity✦Youth✦Gender✦Leadership✦First-generation✦Opportunity✦
The throughline

In every role she has worked with young people — with a recurring purpose: opening opportunity for first-generation learners from rural and marginalised backgrounds.

A development-sector professional and first-generation learner herself, Sheetal moved from event management and marketing into grassroots development, field research, and program leadership. Resilient and self-motivated, she describes her aspiration simply: to leave the world a little better than she found it.

Personal anchors
Books · Journaling · Constant learning
Identity

Her own path as a first-generation learner anchors everything she builds for others.

01

Youth at the centre

Every substantive role has meant working directly with young people, on the ground.

02

Gender & leadership

A consistent specialism — from leadership programming to gender-transformative fellowships.

03

Access for first-gen

Opening doors for rural and marginalised youth who have rarely been handed any.

Current work

Synergy Sansthan

A youth-led non-profit in Madhya Pradesh that has spent 16+ years building an ecosystem of youth-led social change for rural and tribal communities — now her primary professional home.

Flagship — Udaan

A multi-year fellowship for adolescent girls

Four-day workshops on gender, sexuality, patriarchy and career-making with participants aged 14–18 — plus a parallel track for boys on masculinity and gender norms.

GenderSexualityPatriarchyCareer-making
Field research — ITIs

A ground-level study across two districts

Khandwa & Khargone — examining infrastructure, teaching, stipends and job outcomes at Industrial Training Institutes, and the struggle students face.

₹14–15k
typical placement salary
2
districts studied
Hamrahi

Walking alongside budding youth-led orgs

Over a roughly two-year engagement, Hamrahi supports early-stage organisations to register, raise funding, and build their programs, values and culture.

Public-system partnerships

Bringing district government on board

Navigating district bodies to enable on-ground delivery and set up centres in Khargone and Khandwa — demanding work that turns on understanding what each office needs.

The work, up close

Fragments from the field

“

I want to leave the world a little better than I found it.

20–25

fellows trained over two years in each Udaan cohort — then sent back to lead change in their own communities.

A hand holding a cloth embroidered with the word HOPE, made in a workshop
A fellow’s story · Buxar

A fellow built a peer group of teenage girls to talk through the issues society rarely lets them name.

She was struck by how openly the hardest subjects were discussed in the workshops —

gender, sexuality, patriarchy, the shape of a future.
16+

years of youth-led social change that Synergy Sansthan has built across rural and tribal Madhya Pradesh.

Sheetal with a class of schoolgirls during a workshop
Documentation

She documented Synergy’s workshops — including the flagship Udaan program — during her internship.

Sheetal leading a large circle of young people in an outdoor session

From freelancing, to an internship, to a project role — her association with Synergy deepened the more they worked together.

Where the work lives
New Delhi, working across rural Madhya Pradesh.
See the full journey →
The journey

From events to development

Synergy Sansthan

Now · Madhya Pradesh

Gender-transformative youth work, primary field research, organisation-building support, and government partnership. Her current professional home.

Project Lead · Sajhe Sapne

Jan–May 2026 · Bhopal

Led a project at the non-profit launching careers for young rural women — village “Sapna Centres” run a year-long, mini-MBA-style program in local languages, then guarantee a first job. Graduates, the “Sapnewaalis,” move into project management, teaching, coding and social media.

Manager · Medha

Nov 2022–Sep 2025 · ~3 yrs

Her longest formal role. Multi-state employability programming across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana — with a focus on gender & leadership, and on alumni engagement that keeps students connected to opportunity.

Freelancer · Events & marketing

2019–2022 · New Delhi

Worked across corporate and government events with 15+ brands — including YouTube, Skoda, Honda and Unacademy — organising user-feedback data along the way.

Earlier · Kalamkaar · Qrius · Technex

2018–2019

Public relations and literary events in Varanasi; an early marketing role at Qrius; and a top-10-in-India campus ambassadorship at Technex, IIT-BHU, drawing 300+ student participants.

What’s next

Same mission, new tools.

Sheetal is now studying data and AI to deepen the work she already does — turning field observation, research and program insight into systems that can measure and scale impact.

Fromfield research & documentation
→
Towarddata, AI & measurable impact
Data for developmentMonitoring & evaluationAI literacyEvidence & storytelling
Education
Master of Social Work (MSW)
IGNOU
Feb 2024
BA (Hons), Political Science
Banaras Hindu University
2016–2019
Class 12 · PCM
Cambridge Senior Secondary, Buxar
2014–2016
Honours
Top 10
campus ambassadors across India · Technex ’18, IIT-BHU
First place
Content Writing
Fourth
District Youth Parliament