Education as their mission
From a lowly government employee to the creator of one of the city’s premier educational institutions, B. Arogya Reddy’s success story has all the elements of a family entertainer!
Starting as a junior college English lecturer with a `500 salary and hailing from a non-business background he has been educating lakhs of students as the founder and chairman of one of the city’s most prominent intermediate and degree colleges. Looking back it’s been a long and arduous journey for B. Arogya Reddy, proprietor of St Mary’s College (Yousufguda) and Santa Maria International School.
“During my teaching phase, I came across hundreds of students who craved to acquire top-quality education from reputed institutions. But, back in the late 1970s, there were very few such colleges and due to acute competition, not all meritorious students could get an opportunity to study in such institutes. That’s when my wife thought of starting a college with the best of facilities. We started St. Mary’s Intermediate College for boys in 1982 at Chadarghat, with just `4 lakh and a handful of students.”
Today, the famed educationist presides over 30-year-old St Mary’s Intermediate College (Basheerbagh), with 1,000 students and the 10-year-old St Mary’s Intermediate and Degree College (Yousufguda) with 2,000 students, recording an annual turnover of `25 crore. Reddy has recently set up the Santa Maria International School (Serilingampally) with an investment of over `75 crore.
Reddy hails from a simple non-business family in Nalgonda; his father B. Jogi Reddy was a farmer and mother Nakshatra a home- maker. “My father always wanted his children to be highly educated and wished to see us in top posts. I completed my schooling and college in Nalgonda and later pursued my M.A. in English from Osmania University. Soon after, I got a government job as a lecturer and spent the earlier days of my career teaching at junior colleges in Medchal, Sadasivpet and Malakpet,” recounts Reddy.
In 1969, he married Mary from Warangal. She too hails from a simple family; her father Chinnappa Reddy was a farmer and mother Chinnamma a homemaker. She completed her education in Warangal, holds a Master’s degree in Telugu and served for over a decade as a high-school Telugu teacher at Holy Mary School.
“From the beginning, we both loved teaching. My husband was not satisfied with his government service, so, with just `4 lakh in hand, we started our first institute in 1982 on rented premises with 180 students.
The very next year, the college moved to Abids. In 1984, our college hit the news, when our student M.A. Sami stood fourth in the state. And that was the first time that a private college came on par with the other famous colleges — Little Flower Junior College, St. Ann’s (Medhipatnam) and St Francis (Begumpet), ” she notes.
The Reddys have two sons; Madhu Sudhan works as a senior analyst at Education Testing Service, Chicago, while Mahender is a director of the St Mary’s Degree College. The family of four, during the initial phase, roughed it out in a small two-bedroom flat at Vijay Nagar Colony. In 1993 they moved into a mansion in Jubliee Hills.
At the age of 23, Mahender was asked to return from London and take over as principal of the degree college, since the family wanted to divide the work among themselves. “I had just completed my MBA at University of Hull, London, when my father handed over the institute to me. At 23, managing a college was a huge challenge; so every evening my parents and I would discuss work at the dinner table and they would guide me .”
The college faced a major threat during 2000-2004, with the entry of corporate colleges.
I n the case of Sania Mirza, we approached the Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University to grant her permission to write exams according to a different schedule and it’s the same with other students who begin their career at an early age. — Mahender Reddy, Director, St Mary’s
The sales of admission forms dropped drastically, from 10,000 to 1,500. “It was tough for the institution to lose out on revenue from thousands of candidates. We came up with the strategy of focussing not only on academics but also on other curriculums and, above all, to provide maximum support to students in achieving their dreams. In the case of Sania Mirza, we approached the Vice- Chancellor of Osmania University to grant her permission to write exams according to a different schedule and it’s the same with other students who begin their career at an early age. Now the college is back to its earlier form,” adds the 39-year-old director.
Mahender’s wife Chaitanya is the niece of Kasu Prasad Reddy, chairman of Maxivision Eye Hospitals. Chaitanya now heads Santa Maria International School, set up on a sprawling 6-acre campus. “I monitor the administrative part of the school; I love my job and it keeps me busy. My training at St Mary’s College helped me take over the school,” says Chaitanya, whose 9-year-old daughter Trisha studies at the same school.
The family now intends to set up a post-graduate centre. Mahender elaborates, “Our intention was to build a complete chain of standard-wise institutions; we already have a school, an intermediate and degree college and we are now aiming for a post-graduate institution for law and business.”
Celebrities who have passed out from the intermediate college include the Owaisi Brothers, V.V.S Laxman and P. Gopichand; while the degree college has had celebs like Sania Mirza, Jr. NTR, Ram Charan Tej, Rana, Naga Chaitanya and Ashwini Ponnappa.