The summer following my first year at FLAME, I volunteered at a school run by Parikrma Humanity Foundation as a Teaching Assistant and Syllabus Developer. My key responsibilities in this role included teaching spoken English and Social Studies to middle schoolers who needed additional academic support, and developing worksheets, visual aids, and class activities in line with the curriculum to improve learning outcomes.

The reason I chose to intern at a school is because of my social, academic, and professional interest in education policy and development. Volunteering in this capacity at a grassroots organisation equipped me with an understanding of education from various dimensions. Working directly with students to develop alternative learning mechanisms highlighted existing gaps in conventional pedagogic strategies. Assisting and observing teachers in the classroom foregrounded the critical role of enabling teachers to extend their expertise beyond teacher-training programmes. Learning about the school’s functions, plans, and goals informed me about the influential policies in the field and their direct effects on the ground.

As a student of Sociology and Public Policy, I find myself making connections between these learnings and my classwork quite frequently. In fact, the process of volunteering at Parikrma through the Developmental Activities Program enhanced my ability to reflect on the experience via multiple avenues. The continued guidance of my organisation mentor and faculty advisor throughout the process ensured that I was engaging with my experience, both professionally and academically. Furthermore, expressing my learnings in a report, presentation, and poster gave me the opportunity to revisit the experience and retell the stories in many different ways, all of which stay with me even today.