AFS India Newsletter May Edition 2013

7/28/2019 AFS India Newsletter May Edition 2013

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Newsletter

AFS provides intercultural learning opportunities to helppeople develop the knowledge, skills and understandingneeded to create a more just and peaceful world.

IN THIS ISSUE

UPCOMING EVENTS

Re-Entry Orientation of Short Term

Program Students coming from

Germany

ICL W Level Training at Local

Chapter.

Pre-Departure OrientationAFS Intercultural Programs India | Newsletter | Issue V - May 2013 | Pag

Your source to stay up to date with AFS Intercultural Programs India activities,

vents & opportunities.

From Directors Desk - How

To Be A Winner Everytime?By Divya Arora

Intercultural Learning -Culture as an Iceberg Graphic

KL-YES Stories

Training of Trainers

Hosting Stories

Alumni Stories

02

03

04

05

06

08

Host a student

from India


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n my opinion this is possible by

Learn from listening,

ntrospection, books, and

people.

t may not happen in a day or a

week or a year, but likely to

happen in 5 to 10 years! How?

Reflect on the following ideas.

THE LAW OF SEEDS - STORY

OF AN APPLE TREE!

Take a look at an apple tree.

There might be five hundred

pples on the tree, but each apple

has ten seeds. That's a lot of

eeds! We might ask, Why would

you need so many seeds to grow

ust a few more apple trees?

Nature has something to teach us

here. It's telling us: Not all seeds

grow. In life, most seeds never

grow. So, if you really want to

make something happen, you

have to better try more than

once. You'll attend twenty

nterviews to get one job. You'll

nterview forty people to find one

good employee.

NOW, THREE GOOD IDEAS

FOR ACTION:

Buy a book for your bookshelf,

even if you don't have the time

to read it now:Do you have

your own bookshelf? I am

serious. If not, start one today!

Dictionaries. Directories.

Reference books. And the

books of your choice on self-

development, on your industry,

on your subject, and so on.

Learn by listening; understand

by reflecting:Your mind is a

thought-factory. It can

produce thoughts good ones

or bad ones. As the 'production

manager', supply your mind

factory with good thoughts to

get the best output. GIGO

good ideas in, good ideas out!

Many of us of follow BIBO bad ideas in, bad ideas out! If

you like to read novels, read

those related to your industry.

Check with your friends.

Check with your boss and his

colleagues. Read the table of

content first. You don't have to

read it page-by-page. Skip

what you don't like. Collect

one liners. They containdistilled wisdom. Proverbs.

Anecdotes. Stories. Make your

own 'thoughts-book'. Always

be ready with a pencil and

blade; whenever you come

across something good, take it!

Feed Your Mind: In order to

build self-confidence, you

must feed your brain. When

you feed your brain with

proper food, your self-

confidence grows. In the sam

way you need to feed your

body the proper food to kee

strong and healthy; you mu

feed your head, to keep it

focused on your goals. A

question that you should as

yourself and then answer as

honestly as possible is: Wh

would you be doing with yo

life if you knew you couldn'

fail? Once you answer this

question, you may be on yo

way towards your life's

mission!

Above will surely help you, if y

read again and reflect on it oft

I do!

How To Be

A Winner

Everytime?

From Directors DeDivya Arora

AFS Intercultural Programs India | Newsletter | Issue V - May 2013 | Pag


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Most people identify the cultureof a place based on certaingeneral categories, such as food,

art or literature of that specificegion. However, there are many

more aspects that define a societywhich often go unnoticed, forxample, tempo of work,elationship to animals or concept

of cleanliness. In order to helppeople understand this, AFS firstreated, in 1984, a powerful visualhat uses the metaphor of culture

as an iceberg, where a smallportion is visible above the

surface; but majority extendsunseen, deep below the waterline.The Iceberg Graphic has been

reprinted in countless outsidepublications and is used aroundthe world today for educationalpurposes.

A helpful metaphor toexplain the effects of culture,beliefs and values on humanbehaviour is the iceberg. Typically,icebergs are something like seven-eighths below the surface. That'show it is with human behaviour.When you watch two people

having aconversation,what you see and

hear- theirgestures, theirposture andstance, the triggers for laughteand for frowns in theconversation: and the way theygreet and say goodbye (kisses?handshakes?) is the surfacemanifestation of a whole lot ofshaping influences you cant se

Culture as anIceberg Graphic


Intercultural

Learning


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Since the time I started my exchange year, it has been so wonderful, stuwith amazing surprises and achievements. After securing 7th place inWrestling State in CO, and securing Bronze medal in Northern Championship for Wrestling, I got a chance to be a part of the USA OlymWrestling Team and get trained with them every day. Bill Zadick -NatiFreestyle Development Coach for USA Wrestling invited me to be a patheir team. I wrestled with a two times Olympic gold medal winner at138Now I feel so strong and so proud to practice with a national wrestling teathank my USA coach for training me as a champion. Prom was one of the g

experiences I ever had here; my AFS cluster helped me to ask a girl to be my date in Indian style , which was o

funniest moment. I had fun dancing at prom. I got invited from PH International and Global New Media Laattend theYouth Teach Camp in VT. On appreciating my outstanding performance in the Camp, I got invited fChamplain College in Burlington to attend their college in future. All thanks toYES program !

Loving my stay...

By Mohamed Himayathullah

This year was an awesome for me. All this had been a precious time for meUnited State. The credit goes to US Department of State and AFS India.

thankful to awesome host family ,friends ,school and everyone here. I hgrown personally. Having the opportunity to travel overseas has given greater awareness of my own national identity. It has also allowed me to wi

my perspective and become self-sufficient. Now I always think about things from a broader point of view. world has been expanded significantly and with it I have grown as a person. I am much more aware and I alrefeel more confident and independent, than when I left India.

Growing each day...By Shubham Ku

would really like to thank YES program and AFS India for such a life changing

opportunity. I got a caring host family, a lot of friends, and awesome teachers. Iwent to Washington D.C. in April for a Workshop on Youth Leaders in TeachingEnglish. I was one of the 28 foreign exchange students selected for this workshop.We learnt to teach English as a second language. I went to the Capitol, WhiteHouse, Hard Rock Cafe, Ford's Theater and Library of Congress.

I learnt a lot of things in my stay at the US. I learnt to mow the yard, shovel the snow, and also tobranches with a saw. I hiked in subzero temperatures with my host brother. I went to Chicago in the fall and inpring. I also learnt German language and I got an Honors certificate, and a zip up jacket for my straight 'A'hroughout the year. Also, I was the first ever exchange student in my high school- Muncie Southside High Scho be selected for the National Honors Society. I got inducted as an Honorary National Honors Society memb

did 10 plays as cast and crew, and 5 concerts.

Thanks to YES programs...By Yashodhan A. Shende

KL-YES Stories


Hosted in Greeley, Colo

Hosted in Danville, Indi

Hosted in Muncie, Ind


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This year Janak Gajjar (YES 2008-09) and Jerry Prabhakaran(YES2010-11) were selected to attend March Sponsored ProgramWorkshop in Alexandria, VA from March 7th-14th. They also attendedan alumni-specific workshop, immediately following the SponsoredPrograms Workshop.

Thanks for giving us an opportunity to participate in this wonderfulevent.We had a great time at the Ashoka's Youth Venture Program andTOT.

During the first day, we had participated in InternationalBazaar. We had played Holi with almost everyone who visited our stall.At the same time, Avleen was giving Mehandi and we were givinginformation about India, to all the people.

The next day we had to go to the Capitol Hill to visit the statesenators. We had to convince them to keep supporting the fundedprogram and how AFS changed our lives. I met three senators fromMinnesota, with other people from MN and other alumni who werehosted there. It was a great experience talking to them. During theevening, we had a speaker named Luby who taught us about thecultural capability in an age of complexity.

Next day, we had our country presentations where we did aninteresting skit. It was fun. We all worked hard for it. All the people whowere present there, were very much impressed with our performances.

For the Youth Venture program, we were taught about basicallyhow we can change the world. We were taught how to identify an issueconnected with our community, brainstorm about how our passionscan help in our quest to solve problems, vision and mission,storyboarding idea, work on budget, SMART plans, how to dofundraiser, problems we might face and so on.

We also met Ashoka's representative Mr. Vipin Thek. We hadgood discussion with him. It was an interesting experience for me. Ireally enjoyed my time learning new things, meeting new people andfocus on changing the world.

Sponsored Programs Workshop inWashington DCBy Janak & Jerry

Workshop

Funded by US Department of State

I want to thank US Department of State and AFS India, for giving methis opportunity to attend the ECA workshop this year. I learnt a lotand it was really helpful. It will definitely help me to become a betterperson. Now Im looking forward to help the community in everypossible way.

- Jerry Prabhakaran



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7/8

First of all THANK YOU VERY MUCH for making thisfarewell happening in Vadodara chapter. It has meant a lot tous. It turned out to be much more than what we hadexpected. Thanks to the host students, who had preparedsuch wonderful performances. The thanking of the hostfamilies was done by presenting them gifts. The host families

appreciated this idea.Seema maam officially delivered a vote of thanks to

the host families, who had made the hosting of 2012-2013possible. The welcome of the new host family of the comingyear into the AFS family.

There was a skit of a little scene, enacted by the host

students. They had enacted the scene of Gautam Buddha, inwhich a woman goes to Lord Buddha because her child hasdied and begs him to bring back her child to life. Gautam

Buddha first tries to explain, but seeing the woman in griefand desperate to get her child alive, Lord Buddha asks her togo to the town and get sesame seeds from a home in whichnobody has ever died. The woman goes to a lot of homes inthe town, but fails to find a home where no one has everdied. She comes back to Lord Buddha disappointed. LordBuddha explains her the whole point, that an end isnevitable, "Accept the reality as it is and without anyexpectation". The host students then explained that thewhole idea of the scene was to depict that their experience inIndia is coming to an end, and they have to move on and

accept the change which is in front of them; as well as we(host families and volunteers) must also move on by keepingon their memories. Esther sung a Hindi song : "Abhi mujhmein kahin"

They then gave individual speeches and shared theirexperiences. They thanked AFS, host families and Vadodarachapter. They also gave bouquets to Archana ji, Sonal ji,Hemali ji and me as a sign of thank you. It felt so good. Thefarewell came to an end by the song sung by them along witha background help: I had the time of my life. Everyone hadfood and the event ended with happy and crying smiles.

Farewell to Host StudentsAFS Vadodara Chapter

" Tumhe yaad hai woh dinJab hum aakhri baar mile theFir kabhi na milne ke liyeTumhe kya mehssos hua yeh ton nahijaantePar judaai ke aakhri palon mein

Main bilkul hairaan thiKuch essa lag raha tha jaiseAlag kar diya hai meri rooh koMere hi jism seDil kaanp raha tha meraIss anchahi vidaai ki rasm seEk anjaane se khauf ne

Jakad liya tha mujheAur tere aankhon se anjhal hone kebaad bhiAplak dekhti rahi main bas tujhe.

Poem byHosted Students

By Esther, Niccolo', Benedetta, Hildgardand Alice; Vadodara Chapter 2012-2013

By Nishita MehtaAFS Intercultural Programs India | Newsletter | Issue V - May 2013 | Pag


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Newsletter Designer - Aadil Fahim- Swati ChhibberNewsletter Editor

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Alumni Stories

I still remember that day, when I sat glued to the window watchingsnow falling softly . Beyond the breathtaking scenery that laid beforethe fact that I was in japan seemed too farfetched. I was among 29 ot

representing India in a program called Kizuna, meaning bond, whermet 657 other AFSers from many different countries.Spending 12 days with people from totally different cultu

speaking different languages, was incredible. It is amazing how close pecan get in two weeks. It all felt as if we had known each other for our wlives. The amount of love I got from my host family was overwhelm

Recalling those moments, I wish I could turn the clock back. But it was not all fun .The effect of the disastepeople was unimaginable .Talking to students of my age, I was moved by their perseverance. In spite of alldifficulties, the Japanese people welcomed us warmly .The most important value I brought back home, is to geveryone with a smile despite the situation we are in .Looking back, this whole experience has changed meperson. I now look beyond what lies before me. I look out to different cultures and countries which exist more t

mine. To me Kizuna was a success, because deep down my heart I know that the bond between all of ussuccessfully made. A bond that will never die .A bond no earthquake can shake or Tsunami can break. I thank Amy parents and JICE for making this possible.

Unbreakable bond...By Bharathi Venkat

AFS I l l P I di | N l | I V M | P

Hosted in Ja

VolunteerwithAFSIndia

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AFS India Newsletter May Edition 2013

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