India 2018 Part Eight – Final Day at Chitkara University

If you’re new here, start here: Read Part One

Friday October 26^th

Today we’re visiting the Chitkara International School which teaches kids pre-k through high school. The kids are absolutely beautiful and our visit starts with a dance performance from a group of girls in the auditorium. They earn a standing ovation from us and we learn they recently won a local dance competition.

On our tour of the classrooms and campus we play ring around the rosy with the pre-schoolers and visit the stop motion studio for the older kids. Using modeling clay and recycled scraps like bottle caps, wires and chess pieces, they’ve created an entire fleet of stop motion characters that completely inspired me.

We re-board the bus to head back to the main university campus because today are our student evaluations! Part of the requirements of our visit are that we “test” our students on what they’ve learned. Many of our peers are giving their students scratch sheets or bubble forms or essays to write. I say a private thank you to the universe that this is not a regular part of my teaching practice and instead Randy and I give the students a practical assignment to do photo and video essays to demonstrate their skills. We spend the rest of the time giving them feedback and listening to their presentations. Randy is giving most of the feedback. I am quietly getting a henna tattoo from a student. The feedback session goes much longer than we intended, but this is more important to us than another lunch with the professors. After we finish up, the students invite us out the building lobby where they’ve arranged for a cake, part of a celebration they were having for their radio station anniversary, and take selfies and snapchats and make promises to keep in touch. One of the young women has been calling her parents each night campaigning to come to Full Sail when she graduates.

Compiled from student posts to Instagram and Snapchat.

We pack up our things and head to where the buses should be, but it turns out we’re a lot later than we thought. We’ve been left behind, and grab a quick lunch while our liaison from the Chitkara International office arranges for our transportation. These people have taken incredible care of us. It’s not simple to corral two tour buses full of opinionated educators from all over the world, but they’ve made it look easy and fun for ten days. At each moment, I felt safe and like an honored guest. There were days where I could tell this team was EXHAUSTED, but they were still always on time and smiling. I’m incredibly grateful for their hard work and planning.

The car arrives and Randy and I are on our way up the mountains to the other Chitkara University campus in the hills an hour northeast of Chandigarh. This campus, like the other one, seems to be in the middle of nowhere—but this one is surrounded by several other universities as well. The high walled, gated campus looks similar to the first, but a bit more compact. When we arrive, the rest of our peers are positioned on the stairs to the main building for a group photo and Randy and I fitted with our new hats and rushed in to join the photo. It occurs to me that this is probably the only time in my life I am in the front row of a group photo.

Finally, there is a ceremony complete with food and dancing and certificates of honor to finish this incredible experience. I can’t believe how full the week has been, but I also can’t believe it’s already over. I will NEVER forget the people I had the pleasure of meeting, teaching, and sharing with. I learned so much more than I had to give. I feel richer for the experience in a way I can’t make sense of yet. But my India experience still has much to teach me in the coming days.