We are Sofie, Kaitlynn, Reha and Anika, a team of four high school students committed to helping impoverished girls in India complete their secondary education.
On November 23, 2022, we held our first Zoom meeting with the students in India. This meeting was meant to serve as an introductory session to become acquainted with them and vice versa. Although we did experience technical difficulties during this meeting, rendering it arduous to converse freely, the meeting’s primary goals—introducing ourselves to the students and having the students introduced to us—were accomplished, setting the stage for future correspondence.
On February 16, 2023, we had our second zoom call with the four students in India. This meeting was much more of a success. We were able to solve any technical difficulties much quicker and had a conversation going by the time we ended the meeting.The girls were much more responsive in this meeting, asking us questions and interacting with us. We hope that in the future we will continue to establish a connection with them and continue these meetings.
On March 16, 2023 we had our third meeting with the students from India. It was very productive and went very well. The girls asked to ask many questions regarding vocabulary such as what a bougainvillea is. We communicated effectively and had conversations regarding things such as hobbies, sports, future job interests and school activities.
2023/2024 School Year
This year for CMPS we are working on doing some new projects to help the Princess Durre-Shawar Girls High School, one of which is notably a school supply drive to help the school to which we already have paid the tuition for our four girls to go to school. In order to conduct this plan, our current plan is to have Holy Trinity National Honor Society members (who sign up for our committee) purchase school supply items from our Amazon India Wishlist. As we are unable to ship school supplies directly to India due to shipping costs, we have created a wishlist on Amazon India where members can purchase school supply items. Once the “drive” is complete, we will have the items shipped directly to the four girls via Amazon India shipping, allowing the school to receive supplies that will be very beneficial for the students. This is the first major project that we will conduct this year, as not only will it help the four girls for whom we pay tuition, but it will also help other students who attend the school.
We had our first meeting of the year with a new set of four students on October 12, 2023. In this meeting, we focused on icebreakers and getting to know them better. This way for our future meetings, they feel comfortable around us and do not hesitate to ask questions. We discussed topics such as what classes we are taking, our favorite subject, and our dream travel destination. This new group of students was extroverted and we enjoyed talking with them. We hope to have many more successful meetings and form a stronger connection with the girls as time progresses.
On November 21, we had our second Zoom meeting of the year with the four girls in India. This meeting marked a key shift in our approach to tutoring the girls for this coming year; after finishing up introductory icebreakers, we informed the girls about our plans to curate a vocabulary list of advanced English words for them to know before their exams in the spring. Since these exams focus heavily on English, we explained to the girls that we would begin work on this list as early as the next meeting, which allows plenty of time for our part in their exam preparation.
On Sunday, December 17th, we had our monthly Zoom meeting with the girls. After discussing their exam schedules and the subjects that would be covered, we decided that tutoring in English vocabulary would be most beneficial for them. Therefore, we began with some vocabulary flashcards with higher-level English words such as anarchy, negligent, dissident, and concurrently. Learning more higher level words is key to having a better understanding of the language, and the flashcard method as well as reviewing some of the Greek/Latin root words and prefixes helps solidify their understanding of the words. Additionally, we also reviewed some of the words that they had questions about, so as to also make sure that we could help them with any confusion they had about the content that would be on their exams. Overall, it was a very successful meeting!