MUN: Speak Up!

For those of you who don't know, MUN stands for Model United Nations, a simulation of the United Nations, that is intended to educate students about current events and popular topics. Last year, my school started an MUN club open to any student that wanted to join. Although, at first, we had no idea what we were doing, we gradually started to get the hang of it. Within a few months, we were on our way to an MUN conference in Mumbai! The conference was to last for a period of four days, eight hours each day. It was a formal occasion, with appropriate clothing given much importance. The first day I walked into my conference room, I was surprised to see more than 50 delegates with either a notebook or a laptop. I had neither. I was the delegate of Mauritius in this MUN, but I hardly knew anything about the country since I hadn't done any research! As the day progressed, I realized I was the only person who hadn't spoken yet. Finally, my chair asked me to stand up and say something! I was caught off guard, and managed to say something irrelevant, and no doubt, stupid. The next three days dragged on, and I only spoke when I absolutely had to. I made up my mind that I wouldn't attend another MUN conference again if this was how it was going to be!

In retrospect, I'm so glad I didn't quit the MUN club. The next year, I braved myself and decided that I would go to Bangalore to give MUN one more shot. But this time, I would do everything within my power to research my country and gain a comprehensive understanding about the topics we would be discussing in the conference. As I walked into my conference room this time, I was much more confident! I spoke up more often, not nearly as much as some other delegates, but more than I did in Mumbai. I still found it difficult to come up with strong arguments, which frustrated me. When I thought about it later, I realized it may have to do with the fact that I was relatively new and inexperienced to MUN compared to many other students I was arguing against. I figured that if I wanted to win best delegate, I had to work harder the next time!

The experience of being a delegate in the Model United Nations is one I will always value. I grew as an individual working with other delegates, making friends, and even making resolutions! I found that although I wouldn't want to work in the UN, I thoroughly enjoy speaking and working as a team. I absolutely  recommend joining MUN to anyone interested in exploring themselves!

Learning outcomes achieved:

1. Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth
2. Undertaking new challenges
3. Planned and initiated activities
4. Working collaboratively with others
5. Showing perseverance and commitment
6. Engaged with issues of global importance
7. Consideration of ethical implications
8. Developing new skills

OSAATHI: Nirvana

"Mom, can we please go? It's so hot in here", I complained as I fanned myself with my hand as I sat in the cramped car at the vegetable market. It had been a good fifteen minutes that I'd been waiting here for my mother, who was really starting to get on my nerves. I thought about my friends back home and how they would never have to swat away a group of blood-thirsty mosquitoes every five seconds. I sighed. India was an absolute nightmare no matter how you looked at it. Call me spoiled, but I was used to the smooth roads, American beef and steak, and well, English.

As I looked out the car window, that's when I saw her. She sat with her back to me on a broken staircase, bent over and peering into a tiny orange book, her pencil moving furiously across the lined pages. Her oiled hair was neatly braided into a black rope that lay against her back motionless. Her small face was scrunched up in concentration, completely focused despite the hoard of flies that buzzed around her head and gathered at her feet. I sat up in my seat, my attention aroused and observed her from afar for a while, until my mother shook me out of my stupor with the slam of the car door.

As we drove back home, I turned on my iPod but I wasn't really listening to the music. For the first time in my life, I was questioning my fortune. Who was I to bathe in the riches and spoils of an upper middle-class life while that little girl I saw could hardly find an appropriate room to study in? Why did I deserve a family that could afford to spend an extraordinary five lakhs on my school education every year, while she most probably attended a local government school that was free of cost? I continued this way for the remainder of the car ride, exploring my new-found emotions. But was that enough? Hardly. I needed to DO something. And in that search for improving the quality of government schools in rural India and aiding less fortunate students was how OSAATHI was born.

Sure, the idea sounded romantic enough, but the implementation as many will tell you, is a difficult and arduous process. After weeks of bouncing ideas off of each other, my family and I decided that we couldn't depend on the government to help rural schools in India. It was our responsibility! To make a change, we needed to find a school that needed us. As you can imagine, that wasn't too hard. We located a government school on the outskirts of Hyderabad called Janawada High School, open to students in grades 9 to 13. Although I was looked forward to visiting the school, I was also very nervous about interacting with the students. What were they like? Would they laugh at me? Would they accept us? God, this was nerve-wracking.

The first thing I noticed when we got out of the car was that none of the children wore shoes. Instead, they had cheap, flimsy slippers which were halfway torn and ready to give out. The school itself was quite large, covering an area of one acre, more than what most government schools have access to.There were about four buildings clustered together, three of which were dilapidated looking, the other one just newly constructed.  Just alongside the buildings was an incomplete sports area for cricket and volleyball, which seemed to be the main attraction for the younger students. As I turned my attention to more minute details, I noticed about a hundred pairs of eyes glued on my family; I didn't know how to react to this new experience.   As we drew closer to the students, they giggled and ran away, which caught me off guard. Was I doing something wrong? I didn't have too much time to wonder- as quickly as we got there, we had to leave.

As we spent more time at Janawada High School, the more we learned of the unfortunate conditions these students had to suffer in. To my horror, I found that most of the children didn't eat lunch because the school could not provide them with a sufficient number of plates. Within a week, we donated 100 plates to the school and I had the satisfaction of seeing one in each child's hands. The principal informed us that although the school had a computer lab, there were only two computers available for use. We then gifted three computers to the school, and planned on setting up Internet as soon as possible. It would be a time consuming process, but it was a necessary tool for the students.

My parents conceptualized the idea of teaching English to the students of Janawada High School as a part of OSAATHI. We were well aware that many of the children were extremely bright and gifted, but lacked the appropriate guidance required to further their English learning. Of course, we wanted to teach but to do so, we had to become fluent in the language which posed as a huge obstacle to our proposition. Fortunately, we could speak in fragments of sentences and understood Telugu (the local language) completely. It was time to confront my fear of speaking in a different language and embrace the idea of stepping out of my comfort zone.

To help make the learning experience more enjoyable for the students, we brought various visual aids, books, and candy which seemed to encourage their curiosity and interest. Each class that we taught was well received and a fantastic growing experience for me. Although at first I was hesitant to speak and converse in Telugu, and instead asked my parents to do the communicating for me, I gradually found myself increasingly eager to explore my linguistic abilities.

I wanted to help these kids. I really did. But I couldn't ask my parents to donate any more of their money to OSAATHI. They were being far too generous already! I needed raise enough money to renovate the buildings on campus, repair the sports area, and install a library building for all the students. I began designing a brochure to advertise OSAATHI for anyone who was interested - especially for friends and family. I tried to no avail to encourage my aunts, uncles, and cousins to donate a small amount of money each to help Janawada High School. Despite my earnest efforts, not many people seemed keen on helping me out. With dissapointment, I realised this same project in the States would have garnered much more attention and undoubtedly, more donations.

But I sure wasn't ready to give up. I decided it was time to go from door to door in my neighborhood and make phone calls to people I knew would support me. It was tedious, but my efforts did not go wasted. Within three months, I had raised 3 Lakhs! We then hired a carpenter and local laborors to fix the windows, walls, doors, and flooring of the buildings on campus, and construct a separate room for the principal of the school, whose consistent praise for OSAATHI etched a permanent smile onto my face.

Although Archana and I were more than delighted to teach the students English on our own, we could only teach a small number of students at one time. We noticed that every time we taught a class, many students would gather at the classroom door and windows, peering into the room in eagerness. Each one of these kids deserved the right to education! I gathered a group of 9 students from my own school (Indus International) to come teach English at Janawada High School. It was beautiful to see how welcoming the rural school students were towards my fellow classmates with "Hello!" and "It's nice to meet you!", phrases that I taught them during class. With help from my "team", I came up with a syllabus by which English grammar and language could be taught to each one of the students. I couldn't be more pleased with myself!

Next, I plan on raising even more money to install a library so that the students (all of whom absolutely adore reading) can access at any time. Although my focus is to enrich the English learning at Janawada High School, I also believe it is vital to teach these children about global matters and increase their general knowledge about our world. Therefore, I plan on planting trees to raise awareness about the importance of nature and the environment around us. I never thought spending quality time with these children and giving back to my community and to my country, would give me this impossible joy. I am part of something greater than myself and larger than life, and I, once the quintessential American, find myself in the middle of a group of smiling children at a school in rural India, in a state of absolute bliss. Nirvana.

Learning outcomes achieved:

1. Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth
2. Undertaking new challenges
3. Planned and initiated activities
4. Working collaboratively with others
5. Showing perseverance and commitment
6. Engaged with issues of global importance
7. Consideration of ethical implications
8. Developing new skills