From Kangaroo Rounds to Classrooms in Purulia: Samaira Kedia's Summer of Teaching

Every so often, a student's journey with Cheenta comes full circle — not in a competition hall, but in a classroom hundreds of kilometers away, teaching the very ideas that once shaped their own love of mathematics and science. This summer, that student was Samaira Kedia.

A Strong Foundation in Competition Mathematics

Samaira's own track record speaks for itself. She earned a distinction on the AMC 8, has consistently received Gold on the UKMT papers, and has advanced to the Kangaroo round every year for the past three years — a streak that reflects steady, sustained effort rather than a single good year. Alongside this, she has been a regular in Cheenta's weekly sessions on AMC 10 problems and concepts, the kind of consistent, deep engagement with mathematics that tends to produce exactly this sort of result.

It's this combination — genuine competition strength paired with the discipline of showing up every week — that made her a natural fit to step into a teaching role for the summer.

The Summer Project: Teaching at Filix School of Education

For her summer project, Samaira traveled to Filix School of Education in Purulia, where she took on two roles at once: teaching geometry at the AMC 8 and AMC 10 level, and running physics experiment sessions using Cheenta's Physics Research Kit.

Teaching geometry to students encountering Olympiad-style problems for the first time is a different skill from solving them — it demands patience, clear explanation, and the ability to break down ideas Samaira herself had absorbed over years of practice. On the physics side, the experiment sessions gave students a hands-on, inquiry-driven introduction to physical concepts, in keeping with Cheenta's broader philosophy that physics is best learned by doing, not just reading.

Where the Project Took Place: Filix School of Education

Filix School of Education (FSE) is a co-educational, English-medium, CBSE-affiliated school located in the Para block of Purulia district, West Bengal — a largely rural part of the state. Established in 2014, the school was created as an educational initiative of Nanritam, with the goal of making quality, globally-benchmarked education accessible to children in this region. Filix has since been recognized for its work, including a Gold certification for excellence in 2024–25 and recognition at the International School Awards in Dubai in 2023.

The school's stated philosophy centers on nurturing each child's individual potential — recognizing that every student has a distinct way of exploring the world and learning, and building a supportive environment where that uniqueness can be encouraged rather than flattened into a single mold.

The Larger Mission: Nanritam

Filix School of Education is one part of a much larger effort under Nanritam, a non-profit organization rooted in the legacy of Swami Lokeswaranandaji Maharaj of the Ramakrishna Order, who built the Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission into a center of educational excellence and founded initiatives to equip rural communities with employable skills. Nanritam carries that vision forward through several arms — including education for underprivileged children, nutrition support for children through Nanritam Nutri Ed, and sustainable farming initiatives through Nanritam Krishi Kendra — all aimed at building, in the organization's own words, "a world where everyone has the power to shape his or her life."

Why This Matters

Programs like this summer project sit at an intersection Cheenta cares about deeply: talented students not just accumulating results for themselves, but turning around to teach what they've learned to students who might not otherwise have access to it. Samaira's work in Purulia — geometry lessons drawn from AMC-level problem solving, and physics experiments built to spark curiosity — is a small but meaningful bridge between competition mathematics and community education.

It's the kind of project that benefits everyone involved: the students at Filix gain exposure to rigorous, engaging problem-solving; and Samaira, in turn, deepens her own understanding by teaching it forward. That is, in many ways, exactly what Cheenta hopes its students will do with what they learn.