Day 3: First Day of School

Happy first day of school! We began this morning with a delicious breakfast prepared by the guest house staff, got ready, and rode the bus to the school. When we arrived, the students greeted us with beautiful bouquets and paper flowers. After a brief welcoming session, we got to work with the students at BCA. We began with introductions and a presentation by Jade on the engineering design process, which is a focus of this camp. Afterwards, we broke off into smaller rooms and began our activities. 

Today, Kathleen and I taught a website making course, Sasha L. and Sam ran an automata activity, Alice, Anagha and Makenzie ran a bridges activity, and Sasha H. and Kaamaakshi ran a batteries program. I found running the website activity challenging at times, but it was exciting to watch students code for the first time. At lunch, we sat with a big group of girls who shared their food with us and taught us some Marathi!

Kaamaakshi posing with students!

In the early afternoon, we returned to the guest house for lunch, which was so delicious after a long morning! Afterwards, we returned to the school for cultural exchange with BCA staff. BCA staff presented a program on the cultural and religious background  of India, and Kathleen gave a presentation on academics in the US. We ended with a mehendi session where BCA staff drew beautiful designs on our hands!

Mehendi designs done by teachers!

After returning to the guest house, we unwinded and had dinner. We finished our night by preparing for tomorrow’s activities and debriefing about our exciting day. According to Kathleen, the best part of the day was interacting with BCA students at lunch, and Jade really enjoyed the mehendi session. Tomorrow we’ll be running another day of activities at BCA and participating in more cultural exchange, so stay tuned!

See you soon,

Sanjana (and all of SWIndia!)