Wharton Women Committee Spotlight: Harsha Ravindran and Her Business That Ascends to Highest Heights
Written By: Maryelizabeth Greeley, C’23
In this series, Wharton Women Committee Spotlight, we are diving into the past lives of current students in Wharton Women and their entrepreneurial ventures during their pre-Penn time in high school. Clearly the following women would have had to demonstrate a passion for business or they wouldn’t be in Wharton today. The women we will be spotlighting in this series only represent a small portion of the many students who began their business careers before even stepping onto Penn’s campus.
Meet Harsha Ravindran - a part-time College freshman at Penn who serves on the Dollar Scholars committee for Wharton Women. Harsha made her claim to fame back when she was just a 13-year-old, growing up in Malaysia with a hope of pursuing her entrepreneurial dreams. Harsha, along with some other youth at the time, kick-started a social enterprise and youth movement known as Ascendence.
Ascendence allows Malaysian youth to begin pursuing their dreams early on and develop themselves as people rather than simply students. Harsha states “Ascendence [...] helps everyday students discover what they love doing, learn about themselves, how their subconscious works, and also learn about the world around them.” Her team has reached over 4,000 students across 270 communities among 7 countries.
Harsha and her team have been able to bring Ascendance into schools, and not just as an extracurricular. The team worked closely with the Malaysian Industry of Education to bring Ascendance into school curricula, allowing students to discover their passions even during the school day.
The best part about Ascendance is that it’s entirely run by a group of teenagers, which closes the age barrier between the leaders of Ascendance and the students they’re impacting. According to Harsha, there’s an 80-90% engagement rate with the students purely because all of the trainers and leaders are student entrepreneurs like themselves. Harsha comments: “it’s so relatable because we speak the same language as the other kids.”
Ascendance is not simply a curriculum. Becoming part of Ascendance and its programming puts students within close access to resources they may not have otherwise been able to acquire. “We’re a platform that says the young should lead and pull together the community to give them the resources they need”, Harsha said in an interview. She described one example of a friend who wanted to become a Youtuber. Ascendance gave this student the resources necessary to pursue this passion. From green screens and cameras, to editing softwares and those specialized in these fields, the team at Ascendance assists in making any student’s idea a reality. These resources are funded by local corporations and partners, as well as sales of their platform. Harsha concludes, “If more people had the resources we had then anyone could be doing what they love doing.” Proper resources are key to success.
Ascendance not only provides resources but helps youth develop themselves internally, such as developing their confidence and helping “shy kids go out there and take the world by its reigns”. Tacking mental health is also a goal of the Ascendance team. She described how they helped a group of 30 out of 36 failing students pass their exams by the end of their program. For Ascendance, having a clear mind and good mental health allows one to discover their passion, but it also works the other way. Having a passion can improve mental health as well.
Harsha, with her entrepreneurial spirit, has gained recognition working with companies like Simply Empowering, spoken on podcasts like Seek to Speak and even hitting the TED stage back in 2019 multiple times. Back in January, she published her own book The Makings of a Teenage Entrepreneur documenting her experiences working with Ascendance and the lessons she learned on her journey. She says that she wants to continue working with Ascendance even as she ages out. Harsha hopes to use her experience working with Ascendance to start future companies and pursue other passions. Harsha serves as an inspiration to young girls hoping to one day make their own impact on their communities in the future.
(Photo provided by Ravindran) Harsha Ravindran speaks on the TED stage in 2018. In addition to her position on Ascendance, Harsha hosts her own radio podcast called WQHS where she shows off her passion for music.