An Educational Experience

Perhaps the two most crucial moments in the post-college life of Rajiv Vinnakota '93 have revolved around Princeton.

One occurred at the wedding of two of his alumni friends, where he re-met Cathy McKenna '94. The two had lived in adjoining entryways in Holder Hall and had both been members of Tower Club. Still, they had never dated at Princeton. Last April, they married.

The other occurred at his first reunion in 1994. While having drinks in Tower's tap room, he began chatting with four of his classmates about urban policy and education.

"We asked the question, 'Why aren't there boarding schools for inner-city children?' and got into a discussion about it right there," Vinnakota recalled.

The ideas that arose that night gave birth to Vinnakota's brainchild: a publicly funded urban boarding school in Washington, D.C.

Reflecting on his post-college career in the nation's capital and his marriage to another alum, Vinnakota said laughingly, "I fall into every Princeton trap."

For many alumni, the "Princeton trap" is a mundane life spent in the world of management consulting. For Vinnakota, it has been something else entirely.

Immediately after that Reunions weekend in 1994, Vinnakota took a leave from his consulting job and began amassing information on boarding schools.

He became president and co-founder of the SEED — Schools for Educational Evolution and Development — Foundation. And in February 1998 he saw his vision realized when 40 students entered the doors of his SEED charter school, the first urban public boarding school in America.

During the planning stages of the SEED school, Vinnakota wrote and pushed through the passage of an amendment to D.C. charter school law that would provide more money for his school. He also located the site for the school, handled the lease negotiations, raised private funds to supplement government allocations and hired the faculty and administrators.

Since 1998, the school has grown to 140 students. "I no longer play an operative role in the school itself," Vinnakota said. "I'm mainly administrative."

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Vinnakota said the mission of the school is "to provide educational opportunities for urban children who normally do not receive education and succeed." Vinnakota said he aims to set goals for his under-privileged students and guide them toward becoming talented and competent citizens.

And though his work is thankless at times, he said — without hesitation — that he sees the fruits of his labor.

"Most of the kids at the school realize that they're in a uniquely different experience from where they would be without the school," Vinnakota said. "But they won't really appreciate the difference until they go to college."

"Without this program," Vinnakota added, "this group of kids wouldn't be getting three meals a day, or showers."

Families of Vinnakota's students pay no tuition; they pay only minimal costs for extra supplies and activities, such as uniforms and field trips.

Vinnakota argues that the boarding school structure is the best way to isolate the children from their depressed surroundings and allows for closer care and development. "Bringing the kids up from where they've been would be an insurmountable task if we didn't have the 24 hours a day," he said.

Also, the residential boarding system enables faculty members to instruct the students in areas outside the classroom, Vinnakota said. "We teach character development, we like them to have time to get extra academic help and we want to give them a safe and secure environment since most come from threatening communities," he explained.

Vinnakota said he believes that an isolated residential community is more conducive to learning. "This safe environment allows them to be kids, to ask questions, to not fear the idea of learning and being smart," Vinnakota said. "It's fundamental to a nurturing environment."

Vinnakota graduated in 1993 with a degree in molecular biology and a certificate from the Wilson School. He had originally planned to enter the field of medical research — a career in which he hoped to help others and serve society through his scientific discoveries.

"I wanted to get my M.D.-Ph.D. eventually, but I wanted to do something different for a while," Vinnakota recalled. "I left Princeton burned out because I worked really hard, and I went straight to Mercer Management Consulting."

When he began at Mercer, he had no notion that he would some day start a school. "The idea only grew over my time at Mercer," he recalled.

Though his experience in management consulting was completely positive, he said he felt a desire to give more back to society. "I had the time of my life at Mercer," Vinnakota said. "I traveled around the world — to Austria, Calgary — and I was doing quite well in terms of getting promoted and moving up."

"But I had a strong social pull and didn't consider the value I added to a consulting firm the legacy I wanted to leave," Vinnakota said.

He said he has been surprised to see all the practical uses of a consulting job. "If I was to stay in the for-profit world," he continued, "I'd be at Mercer. It was a great learning experience. I learned so much that I can apply to the nonprofit world."

Vinnakota said the "social pull" that he felt came predominantly from his parents, who are both educators and who encouraged him to give back to society. "They always really valued considering what you are doing to make a greater world, and they demonstrated it in everything they did," he said.

Indeed, the idea of looking out for others was not new to Vinnakota, who said some of his favorite memories from Princeton occurred during his stint as a resident adviser in Forbes College. "I had the world's greatest 'zees," he said. "One of the best things I remember was going out with all my 'zees at the end of the year for a bash."

Outside of his work with the SEED Foundation, Vinnakota continues to spend much of his leisure time mentoring middle school children in Anacostia, a depressed area in the southeast corner of Washington, D.C.

Vinnakota said his social work has helped him to appreciate his education. "I didn't truly appreciate Princeton until I left and looked back," he said. "Princeton is a sort of fantasy land of places to be, and as you go further in life, that fantasy aspect only increases more as you continue to be part of the top one percent."

"But stepping out and going into a world of education with kids who are on the other end of the spectrum really opened my eyes to the opportunities that Princeton afforded me," he continued.

If Vinnakota is caught in a Princeton trap, it's not the one that most people would expect.