Meet the Interns

As Preeti posted a few days back, GDL is currently hosting a lot of interns from UPenn, BITS Pilani (Pilani and Goa campuses), Tufts etc.. The flurry of activities is thrilling and interesting. Before I start updating you about the projects we , the interns are working on, let me post what a few interns had to say about themselves!

• Manisha Thapa : I am Manisha Thapa. I am from Nepal. I am pursuing my Bachelor’s degree from University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. At GDL, I will be working on the Bagar Drinking Water Initiative. I will mostly be looking at the marketing schemes and promotion opportunities for Mridul water (soon to be Sarvajal) through interaction with the consumers, prospective entrepreneurs, government bodies and other stakeholders. By the end of the internship I hope to be able to produce all necessary marketing tools for the initiative. I also hope to be able to learn more about the local culture and get to know the people at GDL and the Bagar community better.

• Anurag Dutta : I am currently an undergraduate student in Computer Science at BITS Pilani.My passions include photography, music and graphic designing. My designs can be accessed here.I currently post to the following blogs:
  Through the Foliage, Befuddled songs. At GDL, this summer I am working on setting up a sports league for the youth of Bagar to foster a spirit of sportsmanship and further community leadership.

• Zainab Kakal : I am studying Social Entrepreneurship at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai .I am currently working at Source For Change (SFC), the rural BPO and aims to learn as well as create value for SFC. Born and brought up in Mumbai, I love to explore new ground and ask questions.

• Antara Sarkar:I am in my final year at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS, PIlani). I am working on the Summer Camp that is going to be started here so as to teach English, Computer and Leadership Skills to students in 11th and 12th standard in Bagar. We hope that this camp will give them an extra edge and help them become aware and make most of the opportunities available in India, particularly to get better employment.

• Stephanie Searles : I am from America and I study at the University of Pennsylvania. At GDL, I am working with Radhika on building a website for Bagar both for its residents and also to help put Bagar on the map for tourists. I hope to ultimately create a cyber area that brings together many aspects of Bagar and attracts tourists to the village. The site will also contain hyperlinks to help citizens get more information about other GDL projects and where to find help on learning English, finding jobs, and other such subjects.

• HM Akshaya : My name is Akshaya. I have just completed my second year at the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (Pilani) where I am pursuing my degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. This summer as a part of the Practice School Program at college I am here at GDL to provide my services and hopefully contribute to the change here at Bagar. When I got here and looked around the conditions did look testing and tough but two days into Bagar and I feel like a fish in water and looking forward to work every day. I m going to be working here on a Career Handbook for BEI which is to be later distributed to 9^th- 12^th graders in and around here to help them out with their career decisions. I ‘m also going to be scouting for possible contacts for the BEX (Bagar Employment Exchange), where aspirants could be placed. I hope this visit is productive and I become a part of the change.

And to sum it up,its time to introduce myself. For starters I am Rachit Chandra, 19, highly confused about life. I am studying to be a n engineer at BITS Pilani and have fallen in love with the small quaint little town of Pilani. My other loves include technology, entrepreneurship and gadgets. Sounds geekish? Well, when I am not catching feeds on Google Reader or blogging at Rach 100% Sach I enjoy going on very low budget trips with my friends, camping under the stars, discussing love-life-philosophy – politics-religion over endless cups of chai and watching Westerns. Here, in Bagar,  I am working with the rural BPO, Source For Change. Working on a social start-up is an experience that fits perfectly in my long term plans. And empowering rural women to take control of their fate is such a huge motivation. So here, I am in the middle of nowhere. Hoping to do my little bit. Signing off from Bagar, yours truly