SELCO: Week 2
I've been at SELCO for 2 weeks! It has been a whirlwind, and I think the best way to describe it is: I may not know what I'm doing, but I'm doing something and it matters.
So let me give you a bit of a rundown of what a week at SELCO looks like. Heads up, this is a little lengthy, skip to the bottom for photos!
Monday: Feeling dead tired. I only had one day off, so I'm not feeling like Monday is Monday, but rather Sunday. I'm still not entirely sure I did anything productive.
Tuesday: I attended a panel called "Collaboration: The Future of Social Investing" at a college here in Bangalore. It featured four people involved in grant making. It was incredible. It was 2 hours long, and I found it fascinating comparing the ideas between the US and India. It was inspiring to hear the value in supporting not-for-profit organizations and their passions. The idea was that it's not investing just in ideas, but in people and the teams.
Wednesday: On Wednesday, I spent 3 hours having a discussion with Sandeep Anirudhan, founder of Aikyam Community for Sustainable Living, a community that focuses on sustainability and it's various applications. This discussion was incredible!! I valued his honesty and his willingness to offend. He lives as a fruititarian (eats only fruits) and by other sustainable standards, living what he preaches. There was so much value in listening to such a radical leader in India, with focus on sustainability awareness.
The other concept he discussed was that education should be thrown out, and we should go back to our roots. While I may disagree with the lack of value in education, he discussed how forcing learning onto students is not how we should be teaching; we are assuming we know what needs to be leaned because "we know best". He discussed views of tribal communities all around the world: people assume because they live differently, they need to learn other things because they don't know anything. He views these communities differently, they're better off because they are connected to their roots and they know what is going on in their environment in their own terms. We should be learning from them rather than teaching them this mainstream education.
Inspiring! You can check out this transcript of him talking here.
Thursday: Education Team Meeting! I had the opportunity to meet team members from other locations. It involved presenting the Energy lesson plans that I created, so that they can be implemented in schools.
Friday: Education Team Meeting Continued! Did yoga stretches in the middle of a meeting with 12 other coworkers. Then a little while later, we did trust falls.
Saturday: I attended "Education for Sustainability" Confluence at Bhoomi College which is in an awesome location with nature all around and some cows (check out the picture below). It began with a Q&A session with Derrick Jensen who is a US radical environmentalist. It was really empowering to hear the ways to view the ecosystems we live within
Later I attended a workshop called "Education for Well-Being" which focused on our own experiences with education, and how can we take our experiences and our knowledge and our hopes for education and make a dream school system that fits our values. It was truly a wonderful experience to think critically of education and begin thinking what pieces of our current education systems work so that we can retain those as we change the face of education.
Now for photos of the confluence:
Left photo: The lovely people I spent today with, including a new person that I was able to connect with: Sanjhanaa, Swetha, and Pragati!
Right photo: The drum jam at the end of the confluence. Everyone was rocking out to some drums and bean shakers to finish the day.
So let me give you a bit of a rundown of what a week at SELCO looks like. Heads up, this is a little lengthy, skip to the bottom for photos!
Monday: Feeling dead tired. I only had one day off, so I'm not feeling like Monday is Monday, but rather Sunday. I'm still not entirely sure I did anything productive.
 |
| Standing in front of the plants at IIMB (college) in Bangalore |
Wednesday: On Wednesday, I spent 3 hours having a discussion with Sandeep Anirudhan, founder of Aikyam Community for Sustainable Living, a community that focuses on sustainability and it's various applications. This discussion was incredible!! I valued his honesty and his willingness to offend. He lives as a fruititarian (eats only fruits) and by other sustainable standards, living what he preaches. There was so much value in listening to such a radical leader in India, with focus on sustainability awareness.
The other concept he discussed was that education should be thrown out, and we should go back to our roots. While I may disagree with the lack of value in education, he discussed how forcing learning onto students is not how we should be teaching; we are assuming we know what needs to be leaned because "we know best". He discussed views of tribal communities all around the world: people assume because they live differently, they need to learn other things because they don't know anything. He views these communities differently, they're better off because they are connected to their roots and they know what is going on in their environment in their own terms. We should be learning from them rather than teaching them this mainstream education.
Inspiring! You can check out this transcript of him talking here.
Thursday: Education Team Meeting! I had the opportunity to meet team members from other locations. It involved presenting the Energy lesson plans that I created, so that they can be implemented in schools.
Friday: Education Team Meeting Continued! Did yoga stretches in the middle of a meeting with 12 other coworkers. Then a little while later, we did trust falls.
Saturday: I attended "Education for Sustainability" Confluence at Bhoomi College which is in an awesome location with nature all around and some cows (check out the picture below). It began with a Q&A session with Derrick Jensen who is a US radical environmentalist. It was really empowering to hear the ways to view the ecosystems we live within
Later I attended a workshop called "Education for Well-Being" which focused on our own experiences with education, and how can we take our experiences and our knowledge and our hopes for education and make a dream school system that fits our values. It was truly a wonderful experience to think critically of education and begin thinking what pieces of our current education systems work so that we can retain those as we change the face of education.
Now for photos of the confluence:
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| Eating my entire meal with my hands (it was a struggle if you can't tell) |
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| This cow licked my hand...and my arm... a lot!!! |
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| This cow did not appreciate my pestering. |
Right photo: The drum jam at the end of the confluence. Everyone was rocking out to some drums and bean shakers to finish the day.
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