OUR STORIES

Nagashree pictured with Evelin Klemm, Christel DeHaan’s sister. 

When Nagashree Hanumanthapp addressed more than 150 guests following the U.S. premiere of From Classrooms to Life in Indianapolis, she shared a powerful reflection on how Christel House transformed the trajectory of her life. “Growing up, life felt a lot like a chessboard,” she said. “Some people begin the game protected, guided several moves ahead. And some of us begin by simply trying not to lose too early.”

Nagashree recalled growing up in a home where uncertainty was constant and even a proper meal was not always guaranteed. Everything changed at age six when she enrolled at Christel House India. At Christel House, seeing older students succeed helped her imagine new possibilities for her own future. “Sometimes seeing someone ahead of you is enough to believe that the road exists for you, too,” Nagashree shared.

After graduating from CH India in 2019, Nagashree earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Medical Electronics Engineering and began her career as an engineer with Nokia. Today, her journey has taken her halfway around the world to Carnegie Mellon University, where she is pursuing a Master of Science in Product Management. Reflecting on her experience, Nagashree said, “To me, Christel House was never just a school. It was a place that taught children how to dream with dignity, dream without apology—a place that turns survival into confidence, fear into courage, and uncertainty into momentum.” Her story is one of thousands of Christel House success stories unfolding around the world. As she reminded the audience, “Sometimes all a child needs is one place, one person, and one opportunity to completely change the direction of their life.”

Read Nagashree’s full comments to the audience below: 

So good evening everyone. My name is Nagashree Hanumanthapp and I am a proud alumna of Christel House India. You know, growing up, life felt a lot like a chessboard. Some people begin the game protected, guided several moves ahead. And some of us begin by simply trying not to lose too early. Well, I grew up in a home where uncertainty was constant, and there were days where even one proper meal was not guaranteed.

My mother worked tirelessly to help keep our family of five going, and often quietly sacrificing so that we could move ahead. And in places like that, you learn survival very young. And sometimes dreams feel impractical, ambitious ambitions feel dangerous, and sometimes people define your future before you even know what a future could look like. But at the age of six, my chessboard changed completely when I joined Christel House India.

Mum worked at a tailoring factory when she heard about the opportunity and she got me enrolled and for the first time ever, life felt stable. I had meals at school, I had uniforms, I had books. And I had my teachers, more importantly, who actually believed unconditionally in who I could become. And honestly, one of the greatest gifts that Christel House has given me is so simple…it’s childhood.

I didn’t have to wake up thinking about survival anymore. All I could just think was, who am I going to play with the next day during recess? Or who could I sit with the next day? And slowly, I think, I began to discover myself – the parts that I never knew existed. Along the way, I became obsessed with books in our library.

I spent hours reading. Satyajit Ray, he’s an Indian author. He writes a series and he’s my favorite author. I spent days and hours reading all his novels, and in fact, I proudly made it my mission to read every single one of them. So you can ask me – “I’m very good.” Yeah (smiles) Those books, I’ll tell you, they made the world feel larger than what my circumstance was. They actually taught me imagination, creativity and possibility. I remember my chemistry lab as well. Yes. So there was my chemistry lab. I still remember as a child, I saw reactions happening for the very first time and being completely fascinated, you know, those tiny little things actually. Do all these reactions actually bring out color change and transformation?

And looking back now, I think that’s what education does too. It quietly changes you from the inside before you can actually notice it on the outside. And Christel House has given me exposure beyond just classrooms. Even as young children, we met leaders. We met alumni. We met mentors. We met professionals and people whose lives felt impossibly far away from ours.

Watching our seniors succeed made me realize something very powerful. It is that sometimes seeing someone ahead of you is enough to believe that the road exists for you, too. And during my pre-university years, the College & Careers program helped me understand my strengths and weaknesses through assessments, mentorship, and guidance. Until then I thought success just meant working hard, right? I think I’m not the only one. Little did I know that direction mattered to.

Somewhere during those years, I think I became obsessed with chess. I learned that a pawn can move only forward. The bishop moves diagonally, and the knight can move in an L-shaped. But the queen-the queen can move almost anywhere. So I was like, okay, this piece is too valuable to use, is what I thought. I became very protective of it. And then I realized that I started losing games. Well, then I realized that, suddenly, because I was losing all the games. The Queen is only powerful when you use her. Like potential is nothing if it stays protected forever. And I think that lesson changed my entire life. And it’s a lesson that I learned at Christel House. So with continued scholarships and support, I pursued medical electronics engineering from a prestigious college in Bangalore and earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree.

And then it was 2019, 2023 when I earned my Bachelor’s of Engineering degree. And then came Covid…again, uncertainty. Inflation and the fear of what came next. But once again. I had Christel House. I had Christel House stand beside me and they helped me secure an internship at Nokia, which later became a full time role as a research and development engineer.

And today, that same journey has brought me across the world to Carnegie Mellon University, where I’m pursuing a Master of Science in Product Management. So you can tell that I traverse the worlds of business and technology. Well, if there’s one thing that Christel House has taught me through this whole journey, it’s this – where you begin should never decide how far you can go.

To me, Christel House was never just a school. It was a place that taught children how to dream with dignity, dream without apology-a place that turns survival into confidence, fear into courage, and uncertainty into momentum. Well, my story is only one among many, and there are countless Christel House students and alumni carrying these same lessons into classrooms, companies, laboratories, hospitals, communities around the world.

Because sometimes all a child needs is one place, one person, and one opportunity to completely change the direction of their life. Thank you.