Ms. Shefali Kosta

Co-founder of Swadhaa, Shefali is a postgraduate in the Vedanta stream of Sanskrit. It was during the course of her education that she was captivated by the beauty and depth of knowledge in Indian heritage. Therefore, though she went on to work in the corporate sector for many years, she kept alive an enthusiastic exploration of alternative living communities. She travelled and interacted with them often – came across many individuals involved in alternative education….thinkers and teachers questioning the why and the how of conventions.

She then started to transition to the education sector herself. She underwent a formal training in early childhood education and worked with children and travelled to alternative schools to explore enriched learning spaces for children. She observed these ‘schools’ and their ‘syllabi’, questioning their nature and structures and was fortunate to study places and people giving children an education much beyond the boundaries of syllabi…educating them for life.

With a vision of creating learned, culturally rooted individuals, sensitive to oneself, nature and life, she found in Dr. Rudolf Steiner’s educational work a basis to take her vision forward. She trained in the Waldorf pedagogy and started the first Steiner School in Pune.

Shefali is particularly keen on deepening her journey with children. She is interested in Sanskrit & Hindi Literature, world cinema and likes works of art, especially tribal art.