Day 11: TeamUP in Punjab Summer 2017

Day 11 marked our final day with the students at Guru Harkrishan School. We were all excited to get to work with students again, but at same time, a bit saddened by the thought that we might not see these students again for a quite a while. The school teachers and students did not know that this was our last day.

Over breakfast, we broke up into groups and finalized the workshops we would be conducting. The workshops covered subjects of “Female Empowerment,” “Art of Being a Gentleman,” “World Problems,” “Sports Training,” “Math literacy,” and “Reading Comprehension.” The responses to the workshops were overwhelming. After the first few minutes of the workshop,s all of the student opened up and actively participated in the workshops. To our surprise, the students were incredibly engaged, especially the girls. In certain workshops, we divided the class in groups to discuss specific topic more in depth, and nearly in every group the girls would voluntarily take the lead. It was also promising to see that the boys did not shy away from having the girls lead the group. After the first few minutes of initial shyness of being put in mixed gender groups, both the girls and boys actively participated in the group discussions coming up with some very important information and well thought out answers to the proposed questions. If these kids could be equipped with internet devices so that they could research such topics online, their curiosity and knowledge can be multiplied.

The impact of “Female Empowerment” and “Art of Being a Gentleman” workshop was almost immediate. The girls seemed to be a lot more confident when talking either in the classroom or out in the school yard. The boys also looked more confident in there interactions. A lot of the boys came to shake our hands during lunch and afters school. We noticed that some of the previously shy boys were motivating other students to come shake our hands. There was a significant improvement in their willingness to make eye contact and greet teachers and fellow classmates with a proper firm handshake.

The world problems workshops seemed to have positive impact as well because it forced many of the students to think outside the box. Having them think about solutions for the various world problems was a great exercise because the students were now coming up with solutions to many problems that they originally thought were unsolvable. They realized that group discussions and teamwork can improve and benefit everyone. The look on their faces when we provided positive feedback to the solutions they proposed was priceless.

Additionally, the impact of positive reinforcement was seen almost immediately in the sports training workshop. Simple clapping or saying "Good job!" to the athletes as they did the drills significantly increased their output. The willingness to learn new skills, techniques, and drills was refreshing and encouraging to see. We also noticed increased attendance at the sports training as the athletes were keen to learn new drills.

Finally, after we finished our workshops, we took a group photo with all the students and the teachers. With prior planning with school prinicipal, we announced summer holidays and told the students that this was our last day. They were delighted. However, the students enjoyed the workshops so much that many of them told us that they were willing to take a week less of their summer vacation, and that TeamUP should come back to school and do more workshops with them.

The experience working with the students has been eye opening and extremely satisfying. However, the work that needs to be done has just started. This trip was a physical, emotional, and mental challenge for the team. Coming to Punjab in the vicious summer heat and working in schools with no AC and small congested rooms definitely tested us. But despite the challenge, we all accepted our tasks and tackled them head on. We weren't able to accomplish everything we planned for this trip, but then again we can't expect to change Punjab in a single trip. We have learnt that we need to be extremely flexible if we want to work in Punjab. We have laid the ground work. Now, as half the team heads back to the states and the other half stays back. Now, we will be doing our part to analyze the data we have collected, catalog our observations and begin preparing for the future of Team UP. Some others schools have invited us to work in their schools in future, and we look forward to collaborating with them.

We are grateful to the students, teachers, parents, and schools who allowed us to work with them.