Individuals from the Chevening Research, Science and Innovation Leadership Fellowship Programme (CRISP), in conjunction with the Gurukul Programme alums who studied at Oxford University held their first ever joint reunion, recently, in Kochi, India. Including Chevening administrators and staff from Oxford, we had 28 who came from all over to attend.
 
Chevening is an organization established by the UK government that offers scholarships to individuals who show promising leadership abilities. These scholarships are used at universities in the United Kingdom
 
The first event of the reunion was held on 19 January. It featured panel discussions organised by alumni directed to 175 women undergraduates from Kerala, a state in Southern India, about climate change, education, bottom of the pyramid manufacturing, healthcare, water, recycling, sanitation, AI, inclusive finance, infrastructure, and the start-up incubation ecosystems of India. The orientation of the day was to assist the women in attendance as they think about studying STEM subjects at graduate school in the United Kingdom. In particular, the British High Commission sponsored the day so that the women could learn about Chevening scholarships which could pay for their Master’s degrees.