The India Circuit Blogs

Asim Khan

Mentor Story: Raj Gutta - Cadence Scholarship Program

The Cadence Scholarship Program is the flagship CSR program of Cadence India, introduced five years ago. Many meritorious students from under-served sections of society drop out of the education system after school because of the lack of finances. The project addresses this issue by retaining such students in the academic cycle through funding and support. Cadence employees come forward to serve as mentors for these students to guide them in their studies and career aspirations. They meet their mentees regularly for them to understand their issues and help solve their problems, which help students complete their course with good marks, improve their communication skills, overcome their fears, and emerge with a great personality and positive outlook towards life.
Meet Raj Gutta, Customer Support Group Director, one of the senior mentors for the Program in Bangalore, and hear about his experiences and association with the Scholarship Program.
Asim: Raj, how did you hear about the scholarship and mentorship programs?
Raj: As part of the Bangalore site leadership discussion, the site leader was looking for a volunteer to drive the Scholarship program for the Bangalore site. I have picked it as I was interested in driving this program.
Asim: What prompted you to get involved?

Raj: I felt it’s important for us to support those bright students who are not able to pursue higher studies due to financial reasons. I could connect to this cause.

Asim: In your initial years of career, how has mentorship helped you to guide the children associated with the program?

Raj: We all have got guidance and mentorship from various people at different stages of our life (as a student and in professional life as well). This is the time for us to return to society what we have learnt in our life. I have received excellent mentorship and guidance from many of the seniors at Cadence. I’m glad that I got this opportunity to leverage those learnings for a good cause.

Asim: What are the tactics used and challenges faced while mentoring?

Raj: It’s not just about the subject, we need to focus on their holistic development. We need to spend quality time with these students, understand their pain points and help them in overcoming those. Financial support is only a sub-set of our overall responsibility. The bigger responsibility is to coach/guide them properly to face real-life challenges.

Asim: Finally, what keeps you involved with this program year after year?

Raj: It’s truly inspiring to see these students coming from such a background scoring very high in the academics and cracking some of the country’s top competitive exams like JEE, NEET, etc. Not only in academics, we have also seen some of the students play at National and State level sports. Their dedication and fighting spirit are truly motivating.

Tags: