Hello all!  My name is Mona Yeh, and I will be one of the fellows for the fall/winter term with Dave.  This is my first time in India, and I am thrilled and honored to have been given this opportunity by PIya and Remy to help The Modern Story grow and flourish.

I live in Chicago, IL and my hometown is South Bend, IN.  I am a child of the cold, windy midwest, so this will be one of the warmest winters I have ever spent.  I am the oldest of three children, my sister is 16 and my brother is 12.   I spent my high school years keeping busy with academics and music.  Yes, I am a band geek and completely proud of it.  I continued playing the clarinet as a hobby at Northwestern University, where I majored in Radio/Television/Film and graduated from in 2007.

While in college I was actively involved in Alternative Student Breaks, an organization that sends students on service learning trips.  I had the opportunity to lead three of the five trips I participated in, including a drug rehabilitation center for men on a farm in Colorado, and a trip to New Orleans to help run a soup kitchen for hurricane victims.  In addition, I have spent several sumer working with the Civic Education Project, a summer program for high schoolers that teaches them about service learning and civic engagement.  I’ve made some of the best friends of my life from these programs, and I definitely believe that a large part of that comes from the openness of the human spirit when put into situations where one or both of the parties involved is challenged, and out of their comfort zone. Any fronts a person may come with quickly disappear and you are left with real nitty gritty face-to-face, person-to-person interaction.   Participating in these programs really drove me to search for work at a non-profit whose mission is based in people learning together and promoting mutual empowerment.

This past year I was a fellow with the Northwestern Public Interest Program and worked with a non profit in Chicago called Free Spirit Media.  I gained my first teaching experience with this organization as a video production co-instructor at a high school. The first year teaching high school is by far one of the most challenging experiences one can ever have.  While I probably lost a lot of hair from pulling it out from anxiety and frustration, I also learned so much about people interactions, particularly with youth.  Sometimes you feel like you have spent an entire hour just mind-wrestling with a student, while other times you really find a connection/  I had the privilege to work with amazing students and staff and a newfound interest has been sparked in me to perhaps pursue a career in education.

There is nothing I love more than some intrigue, a good adventure, and a hearty chuckle. This term I hope to really challenge the students to rethink traditional storytelling and to really produce creative stories that they are passionate about.  Judging from the extensive groundwork that has been laid by Piya, Remy, Sarah, and Ioana, I can see that these students are intelligent, enthusiastic, and truly eager to express themselves and to have a voice.  I can’t wait to build new relationships and connections with the new communities I will be living in for the next 4 months!