Let the Project Begin!

It's Day 21 in India. My feet are "sufficiently" settled in this new place (not fully, but I don't think they'll ever be completely), and I'm thankfully almost finished with my fight with food poisoning.

The past two long, activity-packed, exciting days have been dedicated to orientation through Deshpande. "Long" in that each day has lasted over ten hours. "Activity-packed" in that each day has squeezed together a mix of Kannada language lessons, lectures, networking, and site visits to NGOs. And finally "exciting" in that each day has been solely directed to learning and thinking about innovation, social entrepreneurship, and development work.


These two days of orientation have opened my eyes to two main things. First is that so much of the value of this opportunity of working in India is getting to work alongside like-hearted and like-minded people from all around the world. There are 30 total innovators (from USC, UNC, and UC Berkeley) each with their own unique background, experience, and personality. Yet, we are all here together in India working towards a common goal of leaving this place in a better state than when we arrived.

Second is that there is so much work, effort, and progress already happening in Hubli through the community and NGOs. However, this development is only the start of greater things to come. There is so much room and so much need for new ideas and new growth. This understanding furthers the importance of collaboration with local stakeholders because it builds on the idea that our summer's task is not to build something radically new, rather it is to add something innovative to the base already set.