Cycle of unity: How a local student started a cycle of giving back

Education is something that people don’t think twice about in South Florida. It’s normal for children, teenagers and young adults to go to school in the morning, come back in the afternoon and complete their assignments for the next day. It’s common practice for them and even some adults in college to return to class in the next year. 

However, the pandemic completely changed how people view education. Students were forced to learn from home and education became much more difficult. 

Sadly, education became almost impossible for children and young adults who already had little to no access to education in the first place. But one local young adult decided to bridge that gap for many students. His name is Avinash Patel and he created Ladder Academy.

Ladder Academy is a way that underprivileged children can have access to education. Ladder Academy was created to help children around the world have access to technology, mentorship, content, education and motivation needed to get out of generational poverty.

With a heavy focus on bridging generational poverty, Ladder Academy and Patel have the goal of giving 100 students that chance. And Ladder Academy’s origins come straight from the heart.

After taking a trip to visit his grandparents in India in 2019, Patel met a young boy who was very interested in his school work. They formed such a bond that Patel left his computer behind with the boy when he returned to the United States and maintained contact with him afterward.

Soon, Patel realized that there were many students like this boy who were eager to learn but didn’t have ways to do so.

“I became eager to give other students a similar opportunity of using technology so they can continue their academics and achieve whatever profession they want to become in the future, hence, Ladder Academy. I had connected with a great family friend in the Mumbai area and we’ve got into contact with the municipalities and government schools to advertise the idea to students,” says Patel.

The meaning behind Ladder Academy is also based on Patel’s desire to provide others with education. “The name comes from the sort of upward process of how students are able to climb from being in a very destitute community to achieve a much more improved standard of living. Climbing the rungs of the ladder was where the name Ladder Academy came from,” states Patel.

And that upward process is seen in the many ways that Ladder Academy provides for its students.

“The first part of the academy was to enable the students to at least get into an educational environment. Then the next steps were equipping them with technology, communication, mentorship and the curriculum tracks with whatever subject they wanted to achieve in life.” 

And Patel’s community outreach does not stop with Ladder Academy. Patel continued his volunteer work by helping students at the Wayne Barton Center located in Boca Raton. Volunteering at the Wayne Barton Center in 2020 gave Patel a chance to help students closer to his home. 

“Much of my activities was I collected old tablets from family members and friends that you didn’t want or use the tablets anymore and gave them to underprivileged students to teach them programming languages such as Java, and Python, and also use the platform called Tinker.”

It was his volunteer work at the Wayne Barton Center that led him to create his app TODO. TODO is Patel’s app that helps people from low-income households or who are having trouble paying for groceries. Different from other price apps, Todo aims to help people manage their money and understand how to do so. 

“Our app is not like a price app. It’s not searching the local area to find you the lowest prices per se, it does that but there’s more to it. The main sort of facet with TODO is establishing the concept of customer lifetime value.” says Patel.

“These consumers who use total are allocating their money towards the specific retailer brand, like Walmart, Costco, Kroger, etc. And with that, they’re able to build loyalty with a certain brand that allows them to gain memberships and coupons and discounts that normally they couldn’t afford.”

The TODO app will be released to the public soon and people can donate to Ladder Academy’s cause through its website. 

Patel’s inspiration for giving back to his community comes from stories of his own family. Patel’s family experienced firsthand the impact that having access to education can give people. “My grandfather two generations ago lived in a very similar situation. He lived in a very poor farming family, and you know, barely made any money to survive.”

“His saving grace was ultimately the education his family had invested in and a benefactor from the family. He was able to get a college degree and immigrate to America with his family,” says Patel. 

“And with my parents’ generation, they too have used the power of education to succeed in life and make my sister and I’s life a lot more privileged than my grandfather’s. So the idea of giving back to a community of students who have the same motivation to succeed is definitely important to me and like my family’s and plenty of other Indian family stories.”

Patel’s story is very moving but was hardly an easy thing to accomplish. The pandemic served as a challenge for Patel while trying to grow Ladder Academy. Things like time differences, the rise in Covid-19 cases in India and other factors have affected Ladder Academy.

“It was certainly a challenging process. With India being 10 hours ahead on average in the US, the communication window was very tight with talking to people in that country and vice versa.”

“The logistics of delivering laptops in the slums during the pandemic was also very complicated and had to be done very meticulously. As well as the challenges of finding students and making a mention with the program and having a connection with now.”

Despite these difficulties, Patel had tremendous support from the community he was trying to help. “When I’m at school, my mom, being from India, has great communication skills with a lot of the students there. But there are also some of the older students we’ve actually hired to manage the younger students and take care of them and do logistical work happening on the India side.”

“Not only are those students who are participating in the program studying whatever curriculum tracks they’re pursuing, but they’re also helping us organize resources and students to make sure that everyone is progressing properly,” shares Patel.

In Patel’s local community, he helps others and receives help in return. It becomes a cycle of unity and can motivate others to do the same. And although Patel’s work sounds very complex and big, he does have advice for those who want to give back to their community in any way. 

“The best piece of advice is to approach a problem that you either have a very personal connection with or you want to gain the intellectual depth for. It’s not just us helping, we’re able to move and utilize people who are also struggling to help out other people. Give that helping hand mindset to everyone in the community.”

Giving back to one’s community can be much simpler than you may think. It can be as simple as volunteering at a nearby school, sharing your knowledge about a subject while volunteering, tutoring students or even giving a donation. The chances to give back to the community are always there and have grown since the start of the pandemic.

Patel’s story of how a local high school student is only one of many. And his story doesn’t have to be the same for those who want to give back. Understanding that you can do something in your community and finding ways to do so is the first step. Don’t forget to support your community however you can and continue the cycle of unity.