Unlike most interns working for Leave UR Mark, on her way to work, Renae gets to make use of Bangalore’s new, state-of-the-art metro system. It provides a stunning view over the developing city, operates a lot cleaner than the auto-rickshaws, and incidentally is quite silent as well, giving way to the perfect place to ask Renae why she decided to come to India. Having finished her degree in Sociology at the University of Oregon, she explains, she’s now helping out at a school for kids with autism in Bangalore. “It was actually quite a coincidence. It started off with my decision not go to graduate school immediately, which left me wondering what I was going to do with all that freedom. I ‘d always wanted to travel, and figured there probably wouldn’t be a better time than this.”
From the metro station, it is only a short walk to her school, and observing the hustle-bustle of the street life of one of Bangalore’s more developed areas, Renae explains that she’s always been drawn to India: “I traveled around here with my parents when I was little, but I don’t remember a lot of that. I’m planning to go to graduate school and study Counseling Psychology, but in the meantime, I just wanted to help and meet new people. India seemed like a logical choice.”
Greeting her co-workers and entering her classroom of three kids, she continues: “As a whole, the field of mental health and psychology is still quite new, but in India that holds true even more: the concept of these kids having a psychological issue – rather than a biological one – is only now slowly being accepted. Lacking to some degree the resources we have in the West, India still has a lot to explore in terms of psychological education.”
She starts to help one of the kids with a puzzle. “For my job, I try really hard to get one-on-one time with the kids, and I’ve often spent a day just working with one kid, which helps me understand how they process information and how best to work with them.” She laughs and continues, as the boy figures out, under her subtle guidance, that the triangle-shaped piece doesn’t quite fit into the square one:“For one, this internship has taught me that I really know a lot less about children than I thought I did: it’s hard to understand at times why kids express certain emotions. To understand what kids want when they can’t verbally explain those emotions is a real challenge, in a positive way.”
She explains, as the kids go on to have lunch, that the one-on-one time also has another advantage: “Giving them personal attention really helps them understand how much they’re loved. The school focuses on the classrooms as a whole, while I try to pay attention to these kids as individuals: having a sense of self helps them be more independent and self-sufficient, and in that area, I feel like I’m really making an impact. Still,” she concedes with a look at the many teachers and assistants that are helping to feed the small group of kids, “I don´t think I would ever be able to do this work without my co-workers.”
To unwind a little from her intensive internship, Renae recently took a trip to Goa, which is the one thing she can truly recommend to whomever visits India: “I really loved that trip: as much as I like Bangalore, it was great to get some fresh air and relax in a little less populous area.Going out with the other interns was a lot of fun and exploring and traveling is really one of the best ways to get to know them.” With a smile, she concludes: “These past few weeks made me realize that I absolutely want to come back to India again.”
