This blog was written by intern Sofia Azmal who worked with us during her time at The University of Rochester
A lot of questions might be popping in your head. Who am I? Why am I here? What do I hope to achieve by interning at the Gandhi Institute? What can I offer as an undergraduate student at the Institute? How did my connections with the Institute start?
Well first off are introductions. My name is Sofia Azmal and I’m currently a freshman at the University of Rochester. I’m pursuing a Public Health bachelors degree, specifically within the realm of health, behavior, and society. I’m also in-between considering degrees in creative writing, sustainability, or both, in addition to my main degree. As an experimental person, I can’t say exactly what it is I’ll want to pursue maybe two or three years for now, but working with the Institute will definitely give me a wider scope as to what sorts of interests I have.
Initially, I got into contact with the Gandhi Institute during my fall semester of freshman year. During my first semester, I was given the opportunity to join the Rising Leadership Class. A product that I am proud to say that I have created in just my first semester is a service project for the class that was in partnership with the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence. Specifically, my service project dealt with improving financial and communal sustainability in the Institute. To combat these two issues, my team of peers and I created a work proposal that outlined the implementation of a homemade teaching tool (known as Gandhi & Nonviolence Cards) into the Institute’s partnered middle and high schools. The successful implementation of this teaching tool is beneficial to schools with impaired peer mediation styles that need better tactics for fight resolutions. It is also beneficial to the Institute because it can create a sustainable line of funding between themselves and the Rochester school board. I was really intrigued by the work I was able to create with this small “partnership” with the Gandhi Institute, which is why I ended up reaching out over winter break to see if the Institute still had any intern positions open for the spring semester.
I was really excited when I was offered a position at the Gandhi Institute! I was even more thrilled that I’d be able to work on the service project I’d been planning out during my first semester. The Gandhi decks intrigued me the first time I’d seen them. I find that the cards are a great way to incite conversations between adolescents and adults alike.
I was also happy to know that the Gandhi Institute was working beside another organization combatting an issue I was working on back in New Haven: food deserts. Back in New Haven, I was an intern at the New Haven Food Policy Council. At this Council, I worked to provide solutions tackling the food desert-ridden city by implementing innovative and creative documentary shorts. These shorts were used to explain the drastic effects of fast food consumption on a regular basis and how one might use their checks equitably without having to rely on cheap fast food. Much to my suspicion, food deserts are not only an issue in New Haven. In fact, many cities susceptible to poverty are often times the victims to food security issues.
Aside from working with the Gandhi decks, it’s reassuring to know that my expertise and experience in other fields of sustainability and social work can be used in different ways at the Institute. I look forward to updating you on the status of the Gandhi Deck project, and other potential projects/assignments/meetings, in future blog posts!
