Nalanda Academy

ABOUT NALANDA

Nalanda Academy is a public charter with a focus on mindfulness, STEM, and foreign languages from grades kindergarten level through Grade 3. Nalanda Academy will add a grade level each year until it reaches grade 8.
The objective of Nalanda Academy is to prepare students for future success to lead as global citizens in a rapidly changing world.

At Nalanda, our educational philosophy is to equip students with strong core knowledge, a passion for learning, and a lifelong mission to serve their community. We will achieve this by:

1- Basing our language arts curriculum on the science of reading;

2- Approaching daily tasks and activities with mindfulness; and

3- Facilitating time-tested, research-proven physical acitivities and relaxation techniques. The focus on their well-being is to help them cope with trauma, anxiety, stress, distraction and isolation of living in this complex world. Removing these barriers will open the doors to greater learning

OUR VISION

At Nalanda Academy we believe that, in addition to excellence in academics, it is crucial to inculcate a healthy and good way of life along with value-based character building early-on for an overall development of a child. Our curriculum will not only focus on intellectual and academic growth, but also on the emotional and behavioral needs of each individual child’s heart and mind. Daily activities will include participation in age-based, research-proven physical activity, mindfulness, and relaxation techniques to help the next-generation avoid early burnout and remain passionate about learning. Nalanda Academy will instill a lifelong compassion in our children to serve their community. We will offer the most comprehensive and rigorous curriculum meeting the global standards and needs which infuse knowledge to make our children strong leaders in every aspect of life. Nalanda Academy foresees being a center of excellence for all, regardless of any social or economic disparities. And thus, with both academic and personal growth, we envision producing the next-generation global citizens of the highest caliber.

OUR MISSION

At Nalanda Academy our mission is to educate children to become human beings of the highest caliber with a lifelong passion to learn, compassion to serve, and knowledge to lead in every aspect of life.

Our Board Members

Dr. Raj Polavaram, is a board certified Internal Medicine physician with UNC Health and practices in Cary and Raleigh. With Dr. Raj's experience as a head of a non-profit organization, a health care expert and being connected to the community as a serving physician his connection to the community can contribute in governance and growth aspects of the school. After discussing the idea of starting a charter school with many members of the community, Dr. Raj initiated the formation of the Nalanda Academy board.

Dr. Raj Polavaram

Board Chairperson

Dr. Abanish Singh, is an Assistant Professor in Behavioral Medicine and Neurosciences at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Singh has served as a member on the Wake County Academically or Intellectually Gifted Education (AIG) Advisory Board/Committee and contributed in the rewriting of the Wake County AIG Plans for the years 2013-2016 and 2016-2019. He has also served as member, vice-president, and interim president during 2013-2016 on the Board of Partners for the Advancement of Gifted Education (PAGE) of Wake County, a non-profit organization better known for organizing the regional spelling bee competition and several other gifted education activities throughout Wake County. Being a higher-education professional, Dr. Singh spent all of his career in academics, i.e., as a student, researcher, and a professor. He has a long experience in academia as well as in biomedical and behavioral medicine research. He will bring specific knowledge and skills that will significantly contribute towards and lead in strategic planning, innovations in teaching methods, enhancing research-based academic practices, and evaluating curriculum design and development.

Dr. Abanish Singh

Vice Chairperson

Born in Panama City, Panama Jeannette grew up in a bilingual home; fluent in Spanish and English. She is married with three sons, four grandsons and a granddaughter. Jeannette attended Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia where she received her Bachelor’s degree with a minor in Secondary Education. She graduated from Georgia State University College of Law in 1988. Jeannette passed the Georgia Bar, Florida Bar and North Carolina Bar. She is still licensed in all three states. She has had her own law practice since 1993 and continues working as a solo practitioner representing business clients, and clients for personal injury claims and worker’s compensation accidents. She is also a civil Superior Court mediator. Her hobbies are reading, tennis, golf, cross-fit, and cooking. She has been a member of Self Realization Fellowship since 1974. SRF was established by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1920. She is a member of the Raleigh Meditation Group of Self Realization Fellowship which practices kriya yoga.

Jeannette Congdon

Sandeep Aggarwal, is Assistant Director, Dean of Business, Technology, and Cultural Affairs, at Sallie B. Howard School for the Arts. Mr. Aggarwal has served the Sallie B. Howard community since 2004.He brings to the board varied experiences which include education administration, system and process building,employment-based immigration expertise, strategic budget planning, social media marketing, and student international travel. He is currently the Assistant Director at Sallie B Howard School in which he leads the business, finance and technology departments. Additionally, he oversaw the planning and construction of the new high school building from the ground up. He has also led the school's Study Abroad program in which he has organized trips since 2004 to various countries such as India, China,Australia, Cuba, South Africa, and Canada. Finally, he initiated and led an energy conservation project which saved the school a large sum of money for the last past 8 years.

Sandeep Aggarwal

Treasurer

Mr. Gopal works as a Principal Cloud Architect at Hewlett Packard Enterprise since 2018. With over 27 years of combined experience in IT at enterprises and technology startups, Gopal is a problem solver, a technologist, a strategist, and an entrepreneur. He has a lot of experience building enterprise transactional and analytical systems. He leverages public cloud, AI, and machine learning technologies to extract insights from data to help enterprises stand out in the competition. He likes to offer his panoramic experience in the IT space to benefit non-profit organizations like Nalanda Academy.

Satyagopal Panchavati

Board Member

Global HR Executive, with a demonstrated track record of managing HR functions for large multi-national companies. Business oriented and results driven, collaborative, thought leader who thrives in complex and dynamic situations with experience in mature as well as emerging markets.
Expertise
A passionate global HR leader with several years of cross-functional experience, across recruitment, business HR partnerships, employee relations, compensation strategy, HR processes & strategy and M&A
A champion of employee-centric strategy to attract and retain high-performing talent, build a stronger employer brand, and drive organizational success. Led global teams to drive transformation agendas and strategic organizational initiatives

Promoter of Mindfulness; leads Mindfulness, meditation workshops for IBM Executives

Successful in building trusted relationships with external and internal stakeholders across all levels. A flag-bearer of inclusion and diversity