When I first learned about The Modern Story, I was excited to find a small program which appealed to my interests in education and development. Looking back now, it seems fitting that these two interests were born out of a trip I took to India in 2005.

The tsunami hit southeast Asia right around Christmas. The images from the wave’s aftermath disturbed me deeply and put a damper on my holiday. I couldn’t shake the numbers from my head, and found myself haunted even after I returned to college at the University of Michigan. I felt unfulfilled with giving to aid organizations and day dreamed about what it would be like to work on relief efforts on the ground. I hatched a plan to spend my savings to travel to India the summer after my freshman year and volunteer in a village that was affected by the tragedy.

The conditions I encountered in my first trip to a developing country were staggering, and they left an impression that would be burned into my mind for years to come. This was also one of my first encounters with leading my own classroom without the support of a tutoring program or curriculum. Although I had volunteered as a tutor in high school, I was at a loss as to how to teach a group of 7 – 9 year-olds English, being just barely an adult myself. I was in awe of Julia, a fellow volunteer a few years older than me, who was not so paralyzed by fear and ignorance as to freeze completely in front of the students.

Photo taken on my trip to India in 2005.

While I struggled to make sense of my experience in India at the time, in the years that passed, the experience crystallized in my mind as a defining moment. Even now I’m at a loss for words to articulate exactly how and why it changed me, but the point is that it did — and I believe for the better.

Travel helps us grow. Yet this is far from a universal experience. Unfortunately, it is an opportunity for growth and exposure that only people with means get to experience. I have been blessed to travel, but in these experiences I have encountered countless people who have never left the places where they were born and raised.
When I was teaching in Brooklyn, I received a grant to take students to Washington DC on an overnight trip. At the Radisson by the airport a student confessed to me with a look of rapture on her face, that she had never stayed in a hotel before, and that it was even nicer than she’d imagined. She was 18 years old.

In front of the capitol on our class trip to DC,

Traveling is one of the things I enjoy and value more than anything else, but I cannot help but feel a pang of guilt, knowing that these luxuries come at a price that so many cannot afford. I would love to create more opportunities for students — regardless of socioeconomic background — to reap the benefits of travel. I am even more committed in my desire to do so after this experience with TMS. The first step is in exposing students to the vast and exciting world that there is to explore.

To this end, I’ve tried to involve my former students in Brooklyn in my fellowship experience. While it took a little while to get the ball rolling, the students have begun contacting one another through email, and this small gesture, this small step toward broadening horizons has me so inspired to continue with my goal to create real opportunities for students like these to one day meet and experience the worlds that they have so innocently described to one another in their correspondence.

We now start class each day with the routine of checking our email. The girls are thrilled to see a new message in the class account’s inbox. We are sending pictures of Indian traditional dress and contemporary fashion to students in New York. They respond with questions and updates about Occupy Wall Street. We hope to share videos shortly. If you’d like to send a message to the girls of Class 8A (and you’ve read this far on the blog post!) then please write to

railwaygirlsclass8a@gmail.com

Check out the video of the girls checking their email account:

Railway Girls Check Their Class Email from The Modern Story on Vimeo.