The Distinctive Educator

Anu Udhaya – Owner, Little Stars Montessori School, Chennai

Anu Udhaya has been playing many roles in education sector since her 10 years of tenure by being Proprietor of “Little Stars Montessori School“, and Managing Director of  “Udhayam  Educational & Charitable Trust”, followed by proprietor of “Udhayam Montessori Teachers Training Institution”. Apart from these extensive positions, she has been actively participating in directing major activities for three more branches.

Anu did her Masters and is pursuing Ph.D in Education System, which is imparting her extensive experience in Administration, Speech Therapy, Child Psychology and Parent Counseling. Anu is a workaholic and has always been immensely passionate for her work, which she apparently loves the most. This ambitious woman faces every challenge with optimism and has been constantly setting her goals, which she aspires to achieve at any cost. 

Hard working Anu always has too much on her plate and she admits that the idea of sitting with one job doesn’t appeal to her; rather she thrives for opportunities to achieve great heights in life.

She is always on her toes to keep her workplace clean by creating a logical filling method and colorful environment which makes her find everything with ease and hopes her team to stay on the same track.

She is extremely grateful for the honor she got -”Best Montessori Play School in Chennai 2019”, and aspires to continue the good work.

Born in an entrepreneurial family, she found her calling for teaching from a young age and initiated her career by mentoring students, which she enjoys like nothing else, as these conversations with students, business people and others, bestows her with tons of advice. She shows gratitude to all those people who encouraged her strongly to get along with her idea towards great Education, and soon she incepted her school ‘ Montessori School, directing three branches in Chennai with a plan in hand to go with more franchises.

Anu’s mother M. Arivazhagi, is her true inspiration, who carries 25 years of experience in the education sector, from whom Anu ingrained her passion.

On this note, he recalls her mother’s words ‘work hard and be independent without expectation“.

Anu idealizes ‘Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam’ for his teachings and absolutely loves his quotes and dedication towards ‘flow of work’. She recalls few of her favorite quotes by him:

“Your best teacher is your last mistake “

&

“If you salute your duty, you no need to salute anybody,

but if you pollute your duty, you have to salute everybody”.

 

She also takes a dose of inspiration from ‘Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori’, an Italian Physician, Educator & Innovator whose Education methods made children learn naturally. Anu named her school after her name as she adores Montessori’s philosophy towards education methods.

After her master’s degree, Anu got placed in a reputed MNC with an overseas opportunity in hand, but struggled to find her calling about – if she wants to go with her passion of entrepreneurship or to go with the offer letter for a reputed MNC with a handsome package. She chose her dream in such a chaotic state and went ahead with her dream- ‘Little Stars Montessori School”.

She also had her share of struggles due to financial investments and the process of organizing the whole infrastructure, amenities and interior designing of the school according to kids and their comfort. Today she is flying high for her best decisions and is gratified for overcoming the struggles.

Anu adopted a unique way of leading students with certain different methods and introduced speech therapy based on Montessori methodology for kids to help them deal with their speech inabilities.

 “Goals are the core to successful motivation and it needs to be specific, so I choose to be more specific in my goal even though with lots of risk factor on my way”, she reflects.

Thanks to her intense research and analysis, for which she came to know about the interest of parents in unique education methods, Anu penetrated into the market well with her ‘Little Stars Montessori School’.

Reflecting her unique philosophy, Anu asserts, “My instincts help me decide what I have to do in life, thus, I develop good connections between people easily”, adding, “my willingness to be myself makes me a unique person, I guess…”, says Anu with a wink.

 

Achievements

• With her Montessori school, 300 plus kids are now successfully trained for fluency in speaking and have learnt to speak in more than two languages at the age of 3 years.