Gratitude diaries 33

Who isn't attracted to the US as a college destination? I was no different from scores of other young kids who attended the USEFI information sessions. But I knew that getting scholarship was next to impossible and I would never dream of asking my father to fork out money for tuition fees in dollars. So I let it go. After a few years, in 2006, I tried. I took the GRE with a great score, applied to about ten colleges and was accepted by nearly all of them in a Public Policy programme. But again, no scholarships. So I gave up. In 2007, I accompanied my husband to Kingston in Canada where he enrolled into a second MBA program, in Queens university, as a paid student. He took a loan from a bank for tuition fees, and borrowed money from my dad for living expenses. I was allowed by my visa to work, but my educational qualifications were not acceptable, as they were from India. In an effort that was completely out of my comfort zone, I approached a lot of professors in the Development Studies asking for a job- as a teaching assistant. Some responded and invited me to meet them, other flatly refused. One of the two who invited me, was an Indian and he listened sympathetically to my situation and asked me to send him my CV. He forwarded that to a colleague of his, who was teaching a course on 'AIDS, Power and Poverty' to undergraduate students, and this professor accepted me as a TA, without even interviewing me, based on my CV and my work experience in the field of HIV. Through his agency, I walked into a undergrad classroom in North America for the first time in my life. I loved it. I loved how the students were so polite and actually listened and respected their profs. In India, they can be a rowdy, noisy lot depending on the course and the institute. Most of all, I loved the way things were taught. Prof Mark Epprecht was a historian by education, but through his interest in the field of HIV, he had been given the intellectual freedom by the Development Studies department to create a course on HIV. I thought it was so cool. There was no emphasis on learning by rote. A wide variety of tools was used to drive home the message- films, guest lectures, case studies. All the issues around HIV were captured beautifully in the course, in a clear and easy to understand manner. As the assistant I had to attend all the lectures and then later conduct tutorials after the lectures, in which the concepts taught in the class could be discussed in greater detail. I enjoyed these too. It was, in many ways, the easiest money that I ever earned. I loved how the examinations tested understanding and critical thinking of the students and not merely whether they had memorised the course material. I developed a great deal of respect for the educational system abroad after attending this course. I would love for me kids to be able to study in an institute which follows such pedagogy. It's such a pity that such a brilliant system is wasted on dumb American kids! I know that is totally uncalled for. Thank you DEVS, Prof Mark Epprecht, Prof Ashutosh and all the students who attended my tutorials. I loved learning from you and teaching you and this experience helped to compensate for the unfulfilled dream of studying in an American university.