Internships (2.0)

Three more of our students share their experiences from their internships:

Megan Morris: 
"My internship at Ashirwaad Special School was a wonderful learning experience for me. I was able to help assist and tutor students with mental/physical disabilities, as well as observe and learn from the staff and students alike throughout my three weeks. My favorite part was being able to learn about Ashirwaad and similar organizations in the context of India, and compare it to American organizations who's efforts include serving the mentally and physically disabled. I think both sides have things to learn from each other. I was also incredibly blessed to get a more micro, personal experience with the organization as I was able to get to know and form relationships with the students. Each student was so unique and gifted in their own ways- I walked away from that school learning more from the students then what I attempted to teach them over those three weeks."

Megan with the kids at Ashirwad

Lydia Phoenix:

"I spent the last three weeks at Stanes Higher Secondary School, where I spent most of my time substitute teaching in elementary grade classrooms. I loved being with the kids every day and teaching them anything from adding money to crazy American children’s songs. When I wasn’t subbing I had the chance to observe in classrooms and learn from experienced teachers. Everyone was so welcoming and I thoroughly enjoyed my internship experience!"

Lydia with her students at Stanes School

Amber Heckman:
"During my time at Roots Industries I observed people working in the marketing department and all of the responsibilities that they did on a daily basis. This is me learning about all of the different sale strategies Roots uses for it's products."

Amber working at Roots

Internships

For the past 3 weeks, our students have been working at various internship sites across the city. Each student was assigned to a site that followed in their interests and majors such as schools orbusinesses. They have been had the opportunity to watch and learn how organizations are run, as well as participate and help out in various ways. Here, a few students tell of their experiences:

Shaina Derstine: 
"The past three weeks I have had the privilege of working at Ortho One hospital. Here I was able to observe care in physiotherapy, OP, the ward, and was even allowed to watch an ACL reconstruction surgery. The staff at Orth One was so friendly and compassionate, and always took time to explain different procedures to me when I did not understand.​"

Shaina at Ortho One

Shaina at Ortho One

Chrissie Lewis:

"I have been placed in multiple locations to learn about exporting and importing. Most of my internship has been at Geniies IT & Services Private Limited. They have two entities one in e-publishing and another in 3D animations. I have loved working with this company and making connections throughout Coimbatore." 

Chrissie at Geniies

Corey Nelson and Kelly Reszka:

"Corey and I are working with IMAYAM Social Welfare Organization. This organization focuses on community development and the empowerment of women.We have the incredible opportunity to observe and interact in places where IMAYAM program are established. It has been so exciting to learn about this organization and we have been given the job of compiling their annual report. This experience has been incredible."

Corey nd Kelly with IMAYAM

Student Post: Celiz Aguilar on Culture Shock

We spent the evening writing and talking about culture shock last night. Celiz's post on the same topic seemed perfectly appropriate to share with you all.

{Unrelated photo by Kandyce Pinckney, General Bazaar, Hyderbad}

Disoriented

a post by Celiz Aguilar, originally posted on her blog

I was not anticipating the first wave of homesickness. It had been a week since I was in India and I was seriously enjoying myself. It was all so foreign and there was so much that needed to be done and taken in that, in retrospect, I didn’t have much time to realize what I had left behind. We were constantly going and doing and seeing and meeting and experiencing that the reality of it all hadn’t set it. And if I wasn’t doing something for the program or trying to learn how to do something for myself I was getting to know my group and the other students here.

But certain circumstances left me away from any sense of familiarity, on a crowded bus, in the middle of the city. It was the first day of internships and I had two student guides, who I had met earlier that morning, going with me to Families for Children. I had been looking forward to my internship experience since the day I learned of my acceptance into the India Studies Program. And any time anyone asked what I was looking forward to about my study abroad trip, I always mentioned something about my opportunity to intern with a non-profit. But nervousness set in when I started to realize just where I was and what I was doing.

I was disoriented. I was away from my group in a big city, away from my family in an entirely halfway across the world, and going off to do something I felt I was incapable of. I stared out the window and realized: I am in India. 

The smells, sights, and sounds hit me all at once.

I couldn’t get around without the help of these two student guides because I would get lost.

None of the advertisements on the street were recognizable.

I didn’t know the songs blaring on the bus speakers.

I couldn’t talk to the woman next to me because I didn’t speak her language.

And I felt absolutely alone.

I missed the familiar. I missed the known. I just missed home. 

{Totally unrelated photo by Kandyce Pinckney}

On previous bus rides, I had someone from America with me to either be enthralled or uncomfortable by it all. I had someone there to experience and understand it with. But it wasn’t even about the bus ride. Once I arrived at the Families for Children location I began to doubt. I was expecting so much from this internship but I started to realize it could all just be a huge disappointment. What if this isn’t what I wanted? What if I’m not capable of doing what they need me to do? What if I can’t understand them because of the language barrier? What if it’s just not worth it? And so on and so forth…

Before the tour we were directed to the library to help with different, menial tasks. In all honesty, I was relieved to not have to interact with anyone. I am a people-person. I thrive off of relationships and I LOVE being with others but at that point I just needed to be away from people and do something I knew I was capable of doing. I had never found so much comfort in a library. And let me make it clear that I love libraries. In that Families for Children Library, while filling out info cards, I felt like a natural affinity towards the children’s books I used to read (which included everything from the Bernstein Bears to the story Quasimodo in Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and anything that had any remote relation to America (including American Graphic Art of the 1920’s [which I had never previously been interested in before]). I was desperate for anything that came from, or was about, America. 

{Photo by Kandyce Pinckney}

And as I’m writing about it now, I can’t help but laugh at myself and find comfort in how amazing my God is.

We eventually went on our tour. We visited the children with cerebral palsy and watched the physical therapist as he worked. I held a little boy’s hand the entire time and played with him in his crib while the therapist helped another girl learn how to rotate her shoulders. In the few minutes we spent in that room, the boy got a strong hold of my heart and thinking about him now makes me so much more excited for Thursdays. I want to visit him and see him try to stand. I want to hold his hand and play with him. I want to hear him laugh again. Another part of the tour included a visit to the room of the patients who had various sorts of diseases. A lot of them were special needs children, some had polio and couldn’t walk, and others were bedridden. I met Joti, a twenty something woman who, from what I observed, was confined to her bed. She greeted me warmly and asked me to sit down as she pulled up a chair next to her. We talked and talked and talked and talked and the entire time she just held my hand. I asked her what she liked to do and she said “read my Bible”, which was positioned right behind her at the head of her bed. I pulled it on my lap and tried to show her what I had read that morning only to realize that her Bible was all in Tamil, the local language. We laughed. I definitely cannot read Tamil. I asked her about her family. She shook her head, looked around, smiled, and replied, “These people are my family.” 

{Photo by Kandyce Pinckney}

We spent the last hour or so at the library finishing the task we were working on earlier that morning. At that point, however, it was a completely different experience. No longer did I want to be in that library out of fear, nervousness, or anxiety. I wanted to be out there. I wanted to hold and listen to others. I wanted to laugh just BE with others. No longer was the library a place for me to escape from everything else I was scared of. Instead, I took pride in completing that menial task knowing that in some way, I was serving those people who I had just met. If I was going to be in that library every Thursday for the rest of the semester, it would be alright with me knowing that this would be the way I could contribute to those people.

For a while I prayed for God to just give me peace, strength, and a deep love for this country. I missed home and I just wanted my love for this country to overrule my (strong) desire to be home. I still pray for those things, but not as fervently as I used to when I first got here. Instead, I pray for the Lord to show me His heart. I want to know what His heart breaks for. I want to understand more of His love for these people. Each of my own desires reminds me of how much more I want to desire Him. I want to know I’m capable, but He is my strength. I want to feel known and understood and I can be confident in the fact that my creator knows me better than anyone else every will. I want home but He is my home. All familiarity, comfort, and peace ultimately comes from Him. 

Student Post: Natasha Yoder on Why She Loves Wednesdays

Wednesdays are my most favorite days here in India! Every week I look forward to Wednesdays because Wednesdays are internship days! My placement is with an organization called Udavum Karangal, which translates to “Helping Hands”, at a site called Sondham, which is a children’s village.  Children who are orphans who have been abandoned and rescued live in this children’s village. Sondham also has a school there for the orphans (and for others who are day scholars).  I spend most of my time at the school there.

Truly, I love my internship! It is exciting to be able to have field experience in India along with my studies. It is a once in a lifetime experience! I am so happy to be placed at a site working with orphans.  Helping orphans is something I am passionate about and what I want to spend my life doing, so this is a really great opportunity for me. 

Besides loving the fact that I get to be with orphans, I genuinely really enjoy the site where I was placed. The staff there are really nice and give me tea (and also try to keep feeding me more food!) and are very welcoming. They are flexible and take my interests into consideration.  My BACAS student guide told them I would like to work with the little kids, and they said that I am welcome to teach the children.  They told me I can choose what classes I would like to work in. I appreciate that and how kind the staff there are to me.

What's more, the children there are just so great! They are the most adorable and precious children. They like to laugh and have fun and they love affection. Although like most kids, they can be silly, but they are also really sweet. One little boy even gave me a gift last time-- grass. He was holding these blades of grass out to me and kept saying “A gift for you.”  One little boy at Sondham is the most adorable little boy.  Even though Sondham is a Hindu organization, they have Bible Time on Wednesday mornings with two pastors from Child Evangelism Fellowship. It is really neat and so sweet to see the kids singing and doing actions to the songs. This past week one little boy sitting in the front row kept looking over at my student guide and me every two minutes with the biggest, cheesiest smile I have ever seen in my life! I tried so hard not to laugh, but I could not help it. Even my student guide was laughing after I showed him the little boy and told me to zoom in on the little boy and take a picture. The little boy definitely knew too, that he was making us laugh.  (I really hope I get to be in his class sometime).

I definitely enjoy my time at Sondham and am so excited to spend Wednesdays loving on and teaching orphans. My internship is definitely a blessing! Already I cannot wait until next week!