From his school days in the rural pockets of Sangli to becoming an internationally published scholar, Prof Dr Suresh S Shendage from Mulund’s VG Vaze College has always had a commitment towards education, which has earned him the ‘Ideal Teacher – Urban’ recognition from the University of Mumbai. Shendage is to be felicitated today, along with other teachers at the university’s Kalina campus.

Shendage knew he wanted to be an educator since childhood, when he studied at a single-teacher primary school near Sangli. Being the smartest pupil in Std III, Shendage was tasked with teaching the younger kids all by himself. In Std IV, Shendage even began teaching his own peers for a few hours. Eventually, he finished his MSc in Chemistry and BEd from Kolhapur and moved to Mumbai for academic pursuits. Currently, he is a research mentor and the head of the Chemistry Department at VG Vaze College.