Article about ITSA published in the Bardvark!

Student & Teacher Workshops at SN Kansagra School, Rajkot Photo Journal

Here's a photo journal by team member, Natalia Choi, about her experience in Rajkot where ITSA went to work with The Galaxy School. 

Here is a brief recount of the trip:

Monday: 5 AM rickshaw-ride towards the bus stationt, 3-hour bus ride to Rajkot with booming bollywood music from movies, student workshops with 30 students at TGES school for 4 hours, dinner at Chokhi Dhani (an amusement park-like, “traditional village” experiencing place where you watch shows, ride camels, get your fortune told, dance at a discotheque with chaperones...) 

On the bus ride to Rajkot

Riana and I

Sites from an early 6AM bus

Student Workshop on Monday in Rajkot, talking about human rights, the education system, and social hierarchies

ITSA Team!

Camel ride in Chokhi Dhani

At dinner with our freshly done Henna!

puppet show

Tuesday: Early excursions to Hingolgadh to eat local Gujarati food, touch snakes, see wildlife, see old fortresses and villages

the snake man at Hingolgadh

real cobra

making friends

what I eat everyday

All the trees that you seen in this photo are connected as one tree

The group by the 600-yr old tree

new favorite hobby, swining like Tarzan on trees

seeing wildlife

lots of cacti

Martha making friends

the group visiting villages

goats!

Old palace

Cassie and I

Wednesday: Student workshop at a beautiful resort-like school then bus-ride back home to Ahmedabad

Workshop 2 at Rajkot

Our students at Rajkot

that is the school campus behind us, not a resort…

ITSA team!

On a school bus!

Social Change through Ninjas & Valentine's day love!

Hey there everyone!

This is Phil Chodrow, a senior at Swarthmore College. For the last three years, I’ve served as the director of NinjaGram, the world’s only ninja-powered Valentine’s Day card-delivery service / improv comedy group. Each year, NinjaGram delivers hundreds of sneaky cards, and raises over $1,300 for a charitable cause. You can learn more about NinjaGram at our Swarthmore College info page, in this photo-essay with Swat’s Daily Gazette, and in this recent Gazette interview. Also check out some videos of us in action!

What is NinjaGram doing on ITSA’s blog? The answer is exciting! This year, I was pleased to team up with ITSA India by sending all our proceeds to ITSA’s programs.  You can see the teamwork in action at our card-selling table this year (check out the ITSA poster in the back!):

After we sold all those cards, it was up to us to deliver them (video). And here’s the result!

 

$1,360 for ITSA’s expanding efforts in Ahmedabad, India. Sweet!

So, what ties NinjaGram to ITSA? If you ask me, a lot! NinjaGram is all about taking a creative idea for an unorthodox service project (ninjas? With cards?) and making it the biggest and best it possibly can be. I see exactly this spirit in ITSA’s mentoring program: ITSA mentors are helping students all over Ahmedabad to find their voice through innovative social action initiatives. I’m proud to have used my unorthodox service project to help students across the globe realize theirs.

I’m even more proud to announce that NinjaGram’s involvement with ITSA isn’t over! In the next few months, I’m going to be working closely with ITSA to help bring NinjaGram’s success as an organization, as a messaging campaign, and as a charity drive, to student entrepreneurship projects through ITSA’s mentoring program. I hope to see ITSA students driving social action projects that are even more successful than we’ve been, and I’m going share all the lessons I’ve learned from running NinjaGram in order to help make it happen. My major project is going to see me working with some of the most committed members of my NinjaGram team, as well as some of Swarthmore’s coolest videographers, to create a video about NinjaGram and how it works. We’re hoping to communicate just what goes in to running a campaign like this: how to organize teams, how to motivate volunteers, how to create strong branding, and how to make complicated decisions on the fly. My ninjas are pretty revved up, and we’re looking forward to bringing our skills to a whole new field. As I do that, I’ll also be helping out with ITSA’s own messaging and content-generation, so you just might be hearing from me again.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting ITSA!

Peace all,

Phil 

Empowering Incredible Minds Who Can Work Towards A More Incredible India

Juliana (on the right) in action, talking to a group of  attentive students.

Traveling to India last summer as an Intern for ITSA has been one of the most significant and enriching experiences of my life. Besides encouraging critical thinking among young Indians, I had the opportunity to learn about a part of the world and a culture that was almost completely foreign to me.

Initially, it was evident that the kids participating in the workshops were students in a system that does not enable them to think creatively nor critically about themselves and their surroundings. Most of them described themselves as “disciplined”, but had a hard time identifying other idiosyncratic qualities in themselves. Encouraging them to write about their interests and curiosities was very interesting and fun, especially because they were very willing and excited about participating in the workshops everyday.

It is gratifying to know that education reform is not desired just by those who support global education reform and those who work with ITSA. It is also relevant to educators in the current Indian education system and most certainly by the kids themselves, who have come to realize that they are empowered by their own brilliant minds. 

During my time in India, I worked with Riana and Jwalin on ITSA’s workshop curriculum. The curriculum was mainly made of a series of writing exercises and group activities primarily centered on topics of identity. I revised the plan for each workshop before it happened. I made sure that the activities and writing prompts would be clear and appropriate for the kids. When discussing the plan for a workshop on spatial identity, or the different perceptions of a person, I brought up the idea of talking about stereotypes in Indian society with the kids. I thought it would be important to start promoting social awareness because social justice activism is another one of ITSA’s undertakings. As a team of interns and directors, we decided to do “the boat activity” with the kids: to expose them to a series of Indian stereotypes by asking them to save ten imaginative characters out of thirteen on a boat that was, fictitiously, about to drown. The characters could only be differentiated by single traits and social labels such as “beggar”, or “7-year-old maid who dropped out of school”. We wanted to make the kids think about themselves in relation to how others perceive them in their society, and how they view others based on societal stereotypes.

My host family was very loving and caring, especially Pavithra; my host sister. They were from Tamil Nadu, a state located on the tip of South India. Their food was very different than the North Indian food I had in restaurants. South Indian food is more spicy but equally delicious. My host father and I read the Indian news every morning over South Indian coffee, and showed each other family photos while sharing life anecdotes.

I enjoyed walking in the old city of Ahmedabad and observing people’s daily lives -women selling colorful vegetables that made an interesting contrast with the colors of their dresses, women cooking and washing their clothes while talking to their neighbors, and people meditating at various local temples. I remember smelling a Jasmin flower that a Hindu Pujari put in my hair after caressing one of his Gods with oil. 

Being able to appreciate and value Indian culture strengthened my sense of global diversity and inclusion. Besides, promoting critical thinking that will help young minds address social concerns in a country that is so rich in many other ways has encouraged me to continue to pursue youth empowerment. 

~ Juliana Gutierrez      

ITSA Intern-2011

Call for Applications: ITSA India’s International Internship Program 2012

ITSA India’s International Internship Program 2012

Would you like to experience India’s beautiful and unique culture first hand while living with a host family this summer?

Would you like to like to intern in India?

Would you like to contribute to education reform and social change?

If the answer to any of these questions is a “Yes!”, intern with Independent Thought & Social Action in India (ITSA India), an education reform organization running Social Action Training Camps that promotes critical thinking and social entrepreneurship to students in the traditional, rote memorization based Indian education system.

After an extremely successful first summer with interns from New York City, ITSA India is excited to announce applications for the internship program for Summer 2012! Read about the interns’ experiences from last summer on the ITSA blog: www.itsatravellog.blogspot.com.

Please visit our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ITSAInternational.

ITSA Intern responsibilities:

We are looking for passionate, motivated and energetic people to join our team this summer. We will be running experiential learning workshops teaching social organizing skills.  ITSA is entirely staffed by interns and volunteers and we will be expecting the interns to play an extremely central role in carrying out the workshops this summer. Our team will consist of college students from the US and India.

Interns will teach workshops and be involved in documentation work, curriculum development, education research, social media, publicity, blog writing, video creation, graphic design and website development & design. 

ITSA, the Institute of Writing and Thinking at Bard College, and Training for Change in Philadelphia will provide training and orientation to all interns prior to their work in India.

About the City: Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

The city we will work in is Ahmedabad, the famous Mahatma Gandhi’s home during the Indian freedom struggle. We will have a trip to North India, which include places such as Delhi and Agra (home to the Taj Mahal). Experience the beautiful Indian culture, the delicious food, gorgeous monsoons, bustling markets, majestic forts, temples, palaces and all of the magic that makes India unique.

Housing:

Interns will be housed by warm and loving host families to gain an authentic immersion into Indian culture.

Program Dates: (Tentatively) Thursday, June 28^th, 2011 – Thursday, August 9^th, 2011 (6 weeks).

Program Cost:

The entire program will cost $1740. Transportation within India to all necessary ITSA and community service sites, home stay with an Indian family, three home-cooked meals a day and visits to sites within Ahmedabad & North India will all be covered.

Colleges often have grants/scholarships available to take on summer opportunities/summer internships abroad. The ITSA internship can also qualify for a research grant from your college if you indicate on your application that you are interested in doing research with us since we have research positions available as well. Check with your college’s summer opportunities office/career services.

The program costs also include a trip to the historic sites in North India including the Taj Mahal, Akbar’s Palace, Fatehpur Sikri, India Gate, Indian Parliament in Agra & Delhi.

[The cost does not include: transportation to Ahmedabad, personal spending money and visa application fees. Please note that similar organizations often charge three times our cost for similar length programs. The ITSA internship allows interns to truly make a difference in lives of students and to experience India from perspectives of Indian families while forming friendships with Indian peers.]

Application info:

The application requires filling out the online form and a recommendation letter from a professor or someone you have worked for. Here is a link to the application: http://bit.ly/InternInternApp. Recommendation letters and questions should be email to us at itsa@itsainternational.org.

Application Deadline: Wednesday, February 20^th, 2011.  

Testimonials:

“Choosing to send in an application to become an intern was one of the best decisions I ever made, and I cannot sum up its worth and importance so neatly . . . going to India and being an intern for ITSA affects me still, every day, and I am in all respects continuously thankful for the opportunity.”            


  ~Emma King, Intern 2011, NYC (Emma’s Article in the newspaper, Bardvark: http://bit.ly/sAkpEq)

“It was a FANTASTIC experience! The program more than exceeded our expectations - and the amount of work you guys put into ‘educating’ the interns about India was truly amazing. It was a great opportunity to both experience a different country and culture, and take on a leadership role.”
            ~ Juliana Gutierrez, Intern 2011, NYC

We will be happy to put you in touch with our past interns and their families if you wish to contact them for more information.

Sample Day:

Day 3:	Meeting the Mahatma
Morning	ITSA meeting The entire team will spend time reflecting, strategizing and preparing for that week’s ITSA workshops. Interns will also have this time to work on their individual or collaborative ITSA related projects.
Afternoon	Screening of the Bollywood film Lage Raho Munnabhai:         Through his interactions with the image of Gandhi, Munna Bhai, an amiable, good hearted, underworld don, begins to practice what he calls ‘Gandhigiri’ , the modern version of the Gandhian ideals of non violence and truth helping ordinary people solve their problems.         In this light hearted comedy about India’s father of the nation, Munna Bhai changes the way people think about non-violent change in the modern world applying Gandhi to the 21stcentury. A critically acclaimed film, it is the first Hindi film to be screened at the UN auditorium.
Evening	Tour of the Sabarmati Ashram: Mahatma Gandhi’s home         The Sabarmati Ashram (also known as Harijan Ashram) was home to Mohandas Gandhi from 1917 until 1930 and served as one of the main centers of the Indian freedom struggle. Originally called the Satyagraha Ashram, reflecting the movement toward passive resistance launched by the Mahatma, the Ashram became home to the ideology that set India free. Sabarmati Ashram named for the river on which it sits, was created with a dual mission: to serve as an institution that would carry on a search for truth and a platform to bring together a group of workers committed to non-violence who would help secure freedom for India.         Today, the Ashram serves as a source of inspiration and guidance, and stands as a monument to Gandhi’s life mission and a testimony to others who have fought a similar struggle. For more info: http://gandhiashramsabarmati.org/

 

Intern Max Baird’s Blog Entry about our visit to the Gandhi Ashram in Summer 2011

Before visiting Gandhi’s Ashram, I had a sense of who Gandhi was and what he stood for, but I didn’t really understand how large a role he had in the public conscience. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was inspired by Gandhi, left a similar legacy to us, but not nearly to the extent Gandhi has for India. His Ashram was an incredibly peaceful place. An ashram is spiritual community, and we had gone to the one Gandhi lived in for thirteen years. Before entering Gandhi’s house, the ITSA team sat outside while a woman showed us how to spin thread. It was a calming activity, and the Ashram itself was quiet, something you begin to value more when cars begin honking at five A.M in New York City. 

It's not only Gandhi’s political achievements that I find so remarkable. If Gandhi had lived the way he did and spent his entire life in a small village, he would be no less extraordinary. I’ve seen a quote of his, “My life is my message,” in multiple places around Ahmedabad, which, to me, sums up what I'm trying to say. He was able to live a meaningful life, and his achievements flowed out of that goal. So often the outside world appears to be incompatible with whatever peace I can find internally. How can someone be truly virtuous and at the same time stand to live in a world with so much suffering? Gandhi’s Ashram was a very comforting place for me because it was the home of a man who was able to apply his ideals to his life so thoroughly.

            (Read more entries at: www.itsatravellog.blogspot.com.)

Intern Reflections - Summer 2011

Here is an article that our intern Emma wrote about her ITSA Internship experience in the Bard High School Early College's Student Newspaper:

Intern Emma participating in the ITSA workshop writing a focused free with ITSA participants.  

This summer, I went to India. It was not, however, a vacation or a spiritual quest for enlightenment: I went as one of five interns for ITSA. 

ITSA, which stands for Independent Thought and Social Action, is a social action organization co-founded by Jwalin Patel and recent BHSEC alum, Riana Shah.  Centered in the city of Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat ITSA aims to help Indian students attain the critical thinking and analytic skills they need to become independent, emancipated and capable global citizens.   

The education system in India is rote, dogmatic, and limiting - students often simply are not given the opportunity or the tools they need to think critically.  In response to the rigidity of the system, which was founded during the industrial revolution and aims at creating capable workers, Riana and Jwalin decided to create a program, based on the Writing and Thinking workshop, which would help Indian students to break free and think independently.  

This is where I come in. This summer was the second year of ITSA workshops, and the first with interns.  The interns (myself, Ana Powell, Max Baird, Mariah Widman, and Juliana Gutierrez) were brought to Ahmedabad, via a seventeen hour flight, to pursue individual internship projects, stay with incredible host families, encounter Indian culture up close and personal and, above all, help to fully establish ITSA and to help it to flourish. 

Over the three weeks that we had in India, we  (though I can only really speak for myself) were given the opportunity to have an overwhelming number of incredible experiences, the opportunity to meet and stay with amazing people -- Ana and I became very close to our host family and we miss our host sister, Deeksha, immensely -- and to grow in profound ways.   Everything felt like an adventure, from stepping out of the airport into the thick, sweet smelling air, to eating unfamiliar and deliciously opulent meals, to exploring the narrow, woven streets of the old city, to visiting an endless series of gorgeous temples and interacting the people on the roads, to seeing the Taj Mahal; even driving down the street in cars and rickshaws, listening to a symphony of horns was exhilarating, especially since the commuters Ahmedabad tended to ignore basic drivers’ safety. Everything felt novel and interesting.  I could go on forever, but luckily, I don't have to: each experience was recorded in a blog kept by the interns (check it out at www.itsatravellog.blogspot.com).   

But even the hoards of freely roaming cows couldn’t surpass meeting and getting to know the young students who participated in the workshops.  These were motivated students, determined and willing to push themselves far beyond their established comfort zones.  Watching them struggle to adapt, learn, find ways to describe their thought processes and to substantiate their identities was, in itself, one of the most intoxicatingly exciting experiences of the trip.  In just two workshops, the participants were already exploding into their full potential, grabbing for each novel experience with an enthusiasm that was, in many ways, inspirational.   Years of mechanically ossified beliefs were debated,  boundaries were demolished, and as the workshops flew by, the students truly changed - as did I.

When I returned to America, it was made clear to me that my global perspective was forever altered.  I had confronted beauty and incredible ugliness, wealth and utter poverty, remarkable awareness and determined apathy: it was inspiring and overwhelming. The paradoxes of India remain pertinent and poignant, even now, months after I returned. Quite frankly, there is more to say about this trip and about ITSA than could ever fit into a (relatively) short article. Choosing to send in an application to become an intern was one of the best decisions I ever made, and I cannot sum up its worth and importance so neatly.  Thus, I conclude on this note: going to India and being an intern for ITSA affects me still, every day, and I am in all respects continuously thankful for the opportunity.  

Ashni's Hosting Experience

Mariah w/ Ashni's family & the huge but lovable Cujo & Buddy

Honestly, I did not know what to expect when I agreed to be a host sibling. I’m very picky when it comes to making friends, and I don’t get along with everyone. From the very beginning Mariah made it really easy for me to like her. I agreed to be a host sibling in the first place because I wanted the experience of living with someone from a completely different background but as the date of the intern’s arrival grew closer, my panic turned into fear; what if I don’t like her, what if we don’t get along? These were the questions filling my mind but the minute I met Mariah I knew I had nothing to worry about. I didn’t know what I was expecting but she certainly wasn’t it. I found her mature and independent and somehow- she fit perfectly into my life. Being from two different cultures we often ended up talking about the differences between the both. Our conversations often went late into the night and ranged from college to discrimination on the basis of gender and I loved every moment of it!

When we weren’t working with ITSA, we were just spending time with each other and getting to know each other as individuals. I wanted to make sure she got every possible Indian experience I could give her, including the delicious dish called Pani Puri which is personally my favourite. During the evenings, I normally hang out with my friends and she joined us making it even more fun. It was as if she had always been a part of my life. I had to leave for Ladakh, a family vacation planned, after ten days of the arrival of the interns and I regretted it because I couldn’t be there for the whole time they were in Ahmedabad. I also have to point out that all the other interns were also very interesting to talk to; I especially enjoyed Juliana’s company although I didn’t get to know all of them as well as Mariah. I wish I had more time to spend which each one of them so I could understand their views and theories about my country amongst other things.

I cannot thank ITSA enough for bringing such a wonderful human being into my life, it was by far one of my best summers and all the credit goes to Mariah Widman, seriously!

~Ashni Tripathi

National Institute of Fashion Technology

Ahmedabad & Hyderabad

Letter from host sibling, Deeksha...

Edited by: Ashni Tripathi, National Institute of Fashion Technology

 

Here is a letter one of the host siblings, Deeksha Joshi, wrote to ITSA India about her experience hosting after her interns Ana and Emma left for New York City upon the end of their stay in India:


"This summer was unlike any other for me. I had two brilliant individuals who traveled all the way from New York City to experience India and stay with me. I wasn’t just a host and they weren’t just the interns; we were friends. We did everything a group of friends would do, from going to the movies to gossiping - it was touching. Their love for Indian food and the late night talks we had made me truly happy. I could never say that I was bored with Emma and Ana around.


Being from different cultures altogether, what I enjoyed more than anything was talking about each other’s lives. They observed how I spent my day and we conversed about anything possible to talk about ranging from their lives, their likes, the places around, and how lives function in India.

Ana: what should I say about her? She dances spectacularly well and she loved my mom’s homemade chutney. I really didn’t feel uncomfortable for even a minute around her and I was really able to open up.


Emma: she’s beautiful, confident and sensitive. I found her New York “Big City” stories the most interesting out of all. Coming from such a different background I still found her so much like myself, especially since she loved spicy food! 


The experience was spectacular. Now that I have met Emma and Ana, it’s truly hard to picture this summer without them. Not only did I bond with them, but it seems like I know their families too, even though the only way I know them is through online means. To sum up the experience, only one word comes to mind: Mast (the Hindi word for fun and truly spectacular). 


I am already excited for next summer and all the adventures it will bring with a new set of international interns!"