Our mission is to provide underserved communities globally with the stepping stones they need to break the cycle of systemic poverty
Pathway to Progress, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Florida, aims to alleviate the disparities in education and healthcare through our various initiatives. By providing resources and opportunities directly to the communities that are facing the burden of these disparities, we are planting the seeds for a better tomorrow.
Access to Education
While in the United States we are fortunate to have equal access to education, there is not an equal opportunity to succeed. This pattern is consistent globally, where inadequate rural education in third world countries furthers systemic poverty. Millions of students face challenges in their education due to socioeconomic limitations. Past the core curriculum provided by the education system, many students need more guidance to be able to step into their future.
Access to Healthcare
Pathway to Progress is branching out to include expanding access to healthcare within our mission. Our initiatives currently focus on rural communities in India, where basic medical services are scarce. Research shows that only 25% of the Indian population has access to proper healthcare, with women being the most marginalized group. COVID-19 has only furthered these gaps as India faces one of the worst surges in the world.
A Message from Founder, Sanjana Patel
I have always believed that education is the gateway to the future but unfortunately its attributes are not in the equal reach of everyone. Throughout my childhood trips to India, I would visit small schools in rural areas with my family where I first faced the reality of how so many students lacked the quality of education and the fundamental guidance needed to take kids out of the cycle of poverty.
Each visit, I would try to contribute as much as a young child could, such as school supplies from a local shop. These childhood experiences opened up my passion for bridging the gap of educational disparity in as many places as I could impact in my lifetime. With that vision in mind, I started my goal within my own high school, where I created a school supply drive for rural schools in India my sophomore year. After collecting hundreds of school supplies over an entire semester, I spent last summer going back to India to deliver the supplies, reaching over 800 students. Then, through my involvement in my own school district within
Student Government, I became aware of the needs of students within our own community. There are thousands of students within Bay County and surrounding areas who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds and lack the necessary guidance and resources to excel, which puts them at an academic and social disadvantage next to their peers. Unfortunately, the education system is not always fit to serve the challenges of these students.
With the needs of both the local and global education in mind, I wanted to create Pathway to Progress to see how we can work together as a community to address those challenges. As a local community and as global citizens, it is our responsibility to lift our peers up, and that begins with those who make up our future.
Every student deserves an equal opportunity of having a clear pathway ahead of them to a better life, but we must first provide those stepping stones. Our mission is to provide resources, opportunities, and guidance to students while bringing more awareness on how educational inequality continues to be an issue the modern world is facing and the consequences that follow along if we do not work together to alleviate the matter. Please join us in creating that path forward.
Sanjana Patel
Founder
Are you interested in becoming a partner or volunteering?
See how you contributions have impacted the Ashramshala Boarding School
Discover our ACT Boot Camp Program to supplement students in need with the resources to prepare for their future.
Learn how impactful mentorship can be on the education of at-risk students.
At Pathway to Progress, addressing the needs of global education is an important task for us. The gender and class disparities in education in developing countries is a vast issue that can only be addressed one step at a time. As a young organization, we cannot solve the problem overnight, but we would like to be a part of the progression.
The SATs and ACTs are a stressful milestone for every high school student. The scores help determine scholarships, college acceptances, and access to so many more opportunities. However, the reality is that despite equal ability, higher income students have a significant advantage when it comes to standardized testing. Here are just a few of the factors that show how.
As we face the unpredictable times of COVID-19, I’d like to draw attention to the hardships it brings on for the education of students in low-income communities nationwide. With the abrupt transition to distance learning at home back in March, millions of students had to retrain themselves to adapt to new learning methods that are heavily dependent on technology.
Opportunities include administrative assistance, community outreach, fundraisers, mentors, and more!
