Seema Patnaik

 
Wings to Soar, is the brain child of Ms Seema Patnaik, an English teacher and a Fulbright Scholar.

In a career spanning over 20 years, Seema has taught in various schools in India and the US, with the last six years spent teaching English to years 10, 11 & 12 at DPS RK Puram, New Delhi. Her Fulbright stint in 2012 took her to LA, where she taught the AP Curriculum to selective students at the Zoo Magnet Centre, an off shoot of North Hollywood High, LA (http://zoomagnet.org/).

While in the US, she got the opportunity to visit several IVY leagues and other tier 1 colleges, both on the East Coast and West Coast.  This allowed her to examine, discuss and understand the Application Procedure to US Universities, first hand.  Upon her return, she has used this knowledge remarkably successfully to enable selective students achieve their university of choice, including many on full aid/full scholarship.

Brainstorming essays, making language fun and holding reading sessions for students began as a hobby for Seema.  She believes, her students have been her teachers and greatest strength and have kept her flexible, brought fresh ideas and have made the journey enjoyable.  Having helped so many students, the idea to turn the hobby into a business, grew and she started a small Application Process business helped by her students, Biswanath Patel, an IITian, Abhilash Mishra, a former Rhodes Scholar to Caltech, and Shriya Patnaik, her own daughter who she had helped achieve a full Tata-Cornell scholarship.

Today, Seema is actively involved in helping students make it into top notch colleges in the United States and the United Kingdom.  Some of her former students, who secured admission into Ivy Leagues and other excellent colleges, are among her best resource persons.  Seemabelieves that the bonding, camaraderie and goodwill amongst teachers, resource persons and students, helps to draw out the original thinker in every child, encourages them to reach out and help others and contribute in ample measure to the community.

In her spare time, Seema enjoys creative writing, reading and believes that there is a “Jonathan”, in every child.  She says, “At Wings to Soar, Emerson’s phrase Insist on yourself, never imitate, continues to be our buzz phrase”.