Namaskara! My name is Isabella Ireland and I am a rising sophomore in the ILR school. This summer I had the incredible opportunity to work with the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement, specifically the Viveka Tribal Center for Learning, in Hosahalli, Karnataka State in India. For a month and a half, I had the pleasure of teaching amazing students, from grades 6-10, and their teachers public speaking and communications skills. While teaching communication lessons and activities to the students, I also integrated songs, games, and dances into our daily routines to make sure the students had fun in class.
During my time at VTCL, I created a lesson plan for the teachers to utilize when they were teaching their everyday classes to incorporate public speaking skills in their teachings. I worked with my mentor to shadow each teacher to see how I could effectively create activities to meet the students and teachers needs. In my lesson plan, I have created simple daily lessons that can be used for either teacher training or in between subjects for students. In an effort to also make things as easy as possible for VTCL, I compiled a packet of Songs and Dances for students to utilize during their breaks from school or just for fun to ensure that they continued to practice their public speaking skills even when school wasn’t in session. Working with the community at VTCL was important to me because when I first arrived I saw hesitation to speak, whether in English or Kannada, amongst the teachers and students; however, as I continued to teach and work with the community daily I saw each individual blossom into an amazing speaker. One of the last things I did before leaving VTCL, in addition to my lesson plans and guides, was train a group of kids to give an English tour of the campus. This project was one of the most difficult to complete because I had a select group of students, spanning from all 4 tribes served by VTCL (Jenukuruba, Kadukuruba, Yarava, and Soliga), that each came from a different English background. I was originally given a 2-page long English tour script for each student to memorize, but to make things easier on each student I decided to split up the script with alternating lines for each student instead.
While my projects were successful, I think the thing I am most proud of accomplishing, throughout my time in Hosahalli, is the new family I have found. 3 months ago I arrived in a new country and was introduced to complete strangers; however, 3 months later I left India with countless friends, akka’s, little siblings, and mentors. My goal is to ultimately go back to continue teaching at VTCL and to hopefully see some of my students successfully finish their time at VTCL and start the rest of their lives. I am extremely grateful for SVYM, Cornell, the GSL Program, my mentor, my honorary mentors, and my cohort for truly making this experience life-changing.
