Our trip was a six week expedition across India where we met the CEO's and coordinators of grass-root and international NGO's.
Throughout the trip we remarked on the success rate, transparency, and coordination of the NGO's. We had daily discussions about what made an NGO great and what made and NGO less than so. We were also assigned specific non-profits to do further research on and present to the class.
Work load
Nothing could be left for last minute. Some students waited to write their final paper and ended up not sleeping at all.
Classwork was due every single day. Reading discussions were performed daily with one student leading the discussion each time. Students were assigned a chapter in the textbook and were expected to be experts in the material. All other students had to contribute in a meaningful way to the conversation. Some students who had taken other online classes along with this one felt overwhelmed with the amount of work they had to turn in.
Presentation skills
Every student had to hold a presentation at an assigned NGO. The presentation could be on any topic that they wanted as long as it related to the course itself or India in general. I decided to focus my topic on elderly abandonment in India and organizations that focus on rehabilitating elderly people in the community who have been abandoned by their family. The experience was exciting although it made be quite anxious, after all, I was presenting in front of a large audience and holding a cultural discussion with members of the society I was commenting on. Despite the nerves, I think it was a wonderful experience to have gone through and I think it made me more comfortable doing public speaking.
Feeling welcomed at every organization
At the very first NGO that we visited, they had created a large poster with our picture on it and had the 8,000 students in the school come out and greeted us. It's safe to say, that many of us were in tears.
Something I quickly realized while visiting the NGO's was that people in India are incredibly welcoming and interested in who we are. We were welcomed with jasmine and rose floral garlands wherever we went, I can still remember what they smelled like... The Ngo's always offered us coffee, tea, and cookies whenever we came to visit. I will never forget Indian hospitality. (#Indiaisbeautiful)