About Us

Our Philosophy

Our future and progress depend on

the minds that ask a million questions.

We at Kaveri Gifted Education and Research Center firmly believe that gifted children have the potential and capacity to become leaders and change makers as they demonstrate high capability in intellectual, creative, artistic areas, leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields.

 

An estimated 19 million Indian children in the age group of 6-15 years are gifted. This makes it essential and urgent to recognize and nurture their potential. Most gifted children have a quick grasping ability and need advanced material as they learn faster than the speed assumed by the typical curricula and instructions that are designed for their age. Moreover, they have unique socio-emotional needs and challenges, which when neglected, result in boredom or disruption in the classroom, or isolation due to incompatibility with age peers. These issues may lead to gifted children hiding their real potential and underachieving. Alternatively, not addressing the socio-emotional needs of a gifted child can lead to behavioural issues and stress to perform for the child.

 

However, it is difficult to reach out to a large number of gifted children in this manner. We therefore opt for the development an inclusive model of gifted education, where the needs of the gifted are addressed in a regular school system without isolating or mystifying the gifted child.

Outdoor Activities

Our History

In 2009, we successfully launched an Identification and Gifted Nurturing Program for our gifted students, cementing our position as one of the premier institutions in this field. Five years later in 2014 KGI collaborated with Mensa India Pune Chapter to extend our programs and services to other schools in Pune. Establishing the Kaveri Gifted Education and Research Center (KGERC) becoming the pioneer in incorporating Gifted education in a school system. KGERC is the only educational institute to work with gifted students in the normal school system and including all stake holders like the parents of gifted students, teachers and the heads of the institute adopting equity over equal education. Therefore it was a natural step forward to achieve the goal of equipping and training educators to meet the unique needs of gifted children in the current education system.

Giftedness

Giftedness refers to exceptional potential or high capability in intellectual, creative, artistic areas, leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields.

We constantly strive to work toward defining and conceptualizing ‘giftedness’ to suit the Indian context.

The socio-cultural context plays an important role while defining and understanding giftedness. In India, the concept of giftedness has its roots in ancient Indian philosophy.. Indian ideas on giftedness and creativity are inseparable from spirituality and philosophy. The unlimited capacity of human potential has been valued and identified from the times of the ancient Gurukul system.
But in today’s terms, giftedness is limited to ‘creative’ in art and literature, as ‘talent’ in sports and as ‘genius’ in academics (Roy & Kurup, 2016).

Currently, Kaveri Gifted Education and Research Center identifies gifted children with superior intellectual ability as measured by standardized I.Q. tests as well as in-house assessments measuring science and math aptitudes.
We propose to widen the scope of these identifiers by including specific academic domains like giftedness in languages and non-academic areas like giftedness in visual arts, gifted in sports and music. This will allow us to give the gifted children enhanced guidance that is best suited for them individually.

Vision

To identify and nurture every gifted child in order to help them reach their potential and contribute towards nation building.

Mission

To establish integrated systems within schools that identify and support the needs of gifted children.

Our Aim

To develop protocols, design and execute research projects.

To evaluate practices to identify and support needs of gifted children through focus on these areas:

Identification

Identification of gifted students will be based on standardized and non-standardized assessment tools to screen all students in a class. Assessment will be done in different modes to meet the objective of each goal.
Protocol will be created for early identification and each child will be followed closely through the developmental trajectory.

Programs for the gifted:

On Panchakosha an Indian Gifted nurturing model will be integrated to nurture gifted students.
An indigenous model will be developed/chosen to nurture gifted children.
Individualized Education Plans will be developed to include talent development and interpersonal and intrapersonal aspects.
Counselling services will be offered to the child and families of the gifted within and across India.
Parent Support Group will be created across India.

Giftedness Policy Making

We aim to propose the Best Practices in Gifted Education for the Indian education system through research and practice in the area of policy making. To create advocacy in gifted education thereby address all the educational and potiential needs of the gifted child This will ensure that gifted children are identified and nurtured in all age groups from all schools.

Educational Programs for Gifted:

Heads of Institutions, Teachers, School Counselors to give adequate training to handle gifted students in schools.
Creating advanced learning material for students across primary to higher secondary across schools in Pune and Pan India to suit gifted students needs.
Schools will be offered consultation to design programs and create flexibility in existing systems for gifted students.
To create a pool of resource persons as mentors and gifted educators across India.

Our Team

Mrs. Malati S Kalmadi

Mrs. Malati Kalmadi

Founding Director for KGERC

Mrs. Malati Kalmadi is the Founding Director for Kaveri Gifted Education Research Centre, which was initiated in 2014. She is also the Managing trustee for the last 30 years, Secretary Kannada Sangha for the last 15 years. She has been the pillar in creating systems in educational institutes much ahead of our times. Kaveri Institutes has had school counselors for last 25 years and yet again currently she initiated the Kaveri Gifted Centre to set the pioneering work in the field of gifted for the entire Nation bringing all stakeholders together. Her dream is to see that the gifted child in a school should be given the opportunity and gain access to resources and support within the school. Parents of the gifted child and the teachers are also given training and support in Kaveri group of institutes. Her vision is to bring the high learning student’s as leaders and changing agents for the nation.

Mrs. Sumathi Shrinivasan

Mrs. Sumathi Srinivasan

Centre–in-charge

Mrs. Sumathi Srinivasan, has served as a Principal and Head in Dr. Shamarao Junior college for the past 15 years. She has three decades of administrative experience in different capacities in Kaveri Group of Institutes. She has initiated several programs for Junior college students and ensured that students feel secure by promoting mental health of adolescent students in her campus by building sensitivity with teachers and counselors. Her fondness for interacting with children of all ages by accepting to be the Centre-in-Charge of the KGERC, brings in her expertise to fast forward the Gifted

Devasena-Desai

Dr. Devasena Desai

Consultant

Dr. Desai has a PhD in Parent Training and has been working for more than 24 years. She has worked in the area of giftedness for over 15 years. She is also a consultant at Tribal Mensa, Pune. She was awarded the Belin-Blank Fellowship to attend their course in gifted education from Belin Blank Center of Gifted Education at University of Iowa, USA. She is associated with the European Council for higher ability (ECHA) and presents papers in Europe in the area of Giftedness. She designed the teacher training programs at the center which is based from Belin Blank Center, Iowa, USA. Dr. Devasena facilitates the KGEC team in formulating ideas for different programs and services for gifted children. She also offers individual guidance to parents of gifted children and supports teachers to introduce classroom enrichment activities. Recently, she has been appointed as the Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Rehabilitation Counselor and Education, IOWA University, USA.

Dr. Sameena Manasawala

Nurturing Domain In-charge

Dr. Sameena Manasawala has been working as a Facilitator for more than 15 years. She has a doctoral degree in gifted education. She is involved in the area of giftedness for more than 10 years. She has worked in schools as a counselor and then proceeded to initiate after school programs and services for gifted children. Her passion to address this issue led to her being awarded a Fellowship to attend a five-day residential course in gifted education from Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education at University of Iowa, USA. She has also been associated with Mensa India working with tribal gifted students. Her area of interest is nurturing programs for the gifted, twice exceptional children and has presented research papers in both National and International conferences. She works with children who are gifted and talented from age 10 years to adolescence on a myriad of issues like social awkwardness, difficulty in maintaining relationships, underachievement, perfectionism, anxiety related to performance and feeling demotivated due to inappropriate challenge level in school. For younger children, she works with parents helping them understand how to view their child's development through the lens of giftedness and holistic talent development. She facilitates Parent Support Group and trains school counselors to integrate services for gifted children in the regular school set-up. She is also a visiting faculty and teaches undergraduate psychology courses at reputed Institutes in Pune.

Ms. Kasturi Hapse

Assistant Researcher

Ms Kasturi Hapse is an aspiring Psychologist, having keen interest in research, psychometrics, psychometric tool development, statistical data analysis. She holds a masters degree in Industrial Psychology. Her masters level thesis was a correlational study between job crafting and work-related quality of life and organizational commitment. As an Assistant Researcher at the Kaveri Gifted Education and Research Centre, she is contributing to the research projects in the area of Giftedness. Apart from research, she enjoys dabbling in art and craft making several artefacts from handmade paper artefact.

Mrs. Prateeksha Khatri

Counselling Psychologist

Mrs Prateeksha Khatri is a Counseling Psychologist and RCI Recognized Rehabilitation Psychologist. She has worked with Schools like Billabong High International,Vadodara and Akshara International,Pune and has experience of 4 years. She strives to work with children and families for Mental health wellbeing in the best possible ways. She facilitates workshops at Kaveri Gifted Education and Research center with an objective of Nurturing the socio-emotional skills of gifted children.

Anand Godse

Dr. Anand Godse

Gifted Facilitator and Consultant for Research

Anand holds a doctorate in Suryanamaskar. He was a student of Jnana Prabodhini School for the Gifted from grade 5 to grade 10. He holds a master’s degree in Psychology and has been an associate professor at Fergusson College, Pune Department of Psychology for about 7 years. He has published research papers in the area of health in reputed journals. Currently he is the Head of the Research Department at Taal Inc. and is a father to 2 gifted sons. Being gifted himself, Anand is able to instantly connect with the children. During the sessions, he often interacts one-on-one with the children. Through sharing of his own personal journey as a student he helps children become more aware of their needs and challenges and possible ways to cope with them. He also introduces children to Suryanamaskar, chanting and engages them in spiritual discussions. He challenges the children to think differently and keep setting and achieving higher goals.

Aditi Deo

Artist Aditi Deo

Gifted Facilitator

Aditi can be rightly called the ‘Doodle Master of Pune’. Her area of interests and work are art, illustration, graphic design and calligraphy for all! She has founded, ‘The Doodle Factory’ which has created a niche for itself in Pune and outside for being the place for illustrations, art and calligraphy. She also runs a studio ‘Doodle Tales’ in Baner and offer community programs using varied visual art mediums. Aditi is very reflective in her thinking and practice. She encourages children to reflect on ‘Art and Design’ and form their own meaning of the concepts. She helps children to develop a habit to set their own standards and evaluate their work for themselves. She constantly brings in novel mediums, spaces, ideas to the sessions and her facilitation style creates an open, accepting and mindful environment for the children. She is well travelled and shares her experiences with the children inspiring them to go beyond borders and explore new ways of thinking and being. She primarily uses the visual arts medium to develop creative thinking for gifted children.

Archana Deshmukh

Mrs. Archana Deshmukh

Educator, Facilitator & Personal Coach

Mrs. Archana Deshmukh is a Experiential Educator, Facilitator & Personal Coach. She brings with her a unique blend of experiences from variety of fields like IT, Projects & services, experiential education, mentoring adolescent and outbound camps. Her 15 years of professional life, offered her an opportunity to interact with people from industries like manufacturing, service, IT, NGO & education. For last 7 years, she has conducted experiential education based outbound and classroom educational programs with teams in the area of collaboration, leadership, diversity, conflict resolution, customer centricity, communication, self-management and stress management. So far she has also worked as an educator with 2000+ children and youth and as a personal coach at individual levels for many adults and students.

Ms. Pallavi Dalvi

M.Sc. M. Ed. ; NET (Education)

Working as a Pedagogical consultant. She believes in creating sustained methods for quality education.
She has been in the field of teaching for 22 years and Gifted Education since 2014.
At KGERC, she has been a part of Teacher Training and curriculum development. She has facilitated “Jigyasa”: a Maths and Science activity book based on methodologies for the advanced academic learners.

Ms. Darshita Mehta

Ms. Darshita Mehta is a Gifted Facilitator and Counselor at Kaveri Gifted Education and Research Center. She holds a Masters in Counselling Psychology. Her areas of interest are utilizing bibliotherapy, cinematherapy, and journal therapy to create a supportive and enriching environment for young minds. She is a voracious reader herself and enjoys baking in her free time.

Ms. Sanjita Prasad

Ms. Sanjita Prasad is a Gifted Facilitator and Counsellor at the Kaveri Gifted Education and Research Center. She has completed her Masters in Counselling Psychology. Her areas of interest include designing workshops for the nurturing program, conducting assessments, and creating a safe space for children. She loves to incorporate concepts of Indian Psychology in daily life. She loves to read books, mangas and comics, draws sketches in her free time and is a sports enthusiast.

Rahee D

Rahee D has been working in the field of education for over 25 years. She has taught English language and literature, sociology as well as courses in leadership and global citizenship. She has been involved in teacher training as well as curriculum design and facilitates creative thinking courses and workshops for students.

Our Organisational Structure