faith-f-writes-from-bk-to-b-blog

[faith-f-writes-from-bk-to-b-blog]

Courtesy Call

When you go to visit a friend or relative, I'd like to think you would call first. So why would it be any different when we plan to visit a new country, halfway around the world, that no one had visited before? So before we left for India we paid a courtesy visit to Consulate General of India in the USA, well the Deputy Consul atleast.


I am capable of amazing things and so are you 👉🏾

On the Friday before we left, our university president, Thomas Isekenegebe, lecturers and senior officials from CUNY met at the office to bid us farewell.



Deputy Consul General Shatrughna Sinha encouraged us to have an open mind when we get there and be mindful that where we are going is no America, yet just as wonderful, and that we learnt! We introduced ourselves to the dignitaries and told them of our plans and motivation for the trip.



Hi 👋🏻 I’m Noshka 



Hi 👋🏻 I’m Wilkins


We watched videos of the festivities, the people the food which gave us a first glimpse of what we were about to experience. In the end, we were served finger licking, Indian snacks and "mango lassi" I still need to get the recipe for that.



Ohh the food 



Mango Lassi 



The meeting ended with us mingling and getting all the pictures we needed to update our instagram accounts.



This one time I was walking with Gandhi


Before we left the building we collected our most important possession... our passport... with visa



A few months ago, I missed my opportunity to be recognized as a student on the President's List for Fall 2018, sooooo I used this time to get more than a handshake from the President, I got a whole hug 🤗 🤗 

Talk about killing 2 birds with one stone 💪🏾



Now we’re ready to leave for INDIA!!! 

[faith-f-writes-from-bk-to-b-blog]

How Did We Get Here

Dr. Neal Phillip, our ship captain, he it hates it when we call him that, tells the story of this one time he was browsing his Facebook and saw a company accepting project proposals from schools in order to compete to win funding for their project. He submitted one and sometime later was contacted because he had won it, for our school, CUNY-Bronx Community College, to do a sustainability study abroad. Yay us!! Maybe Social media isn't that bad after all. 😂🤓

Last year, the group went to Palma, Mallorca in Spain 🇪🇸, met the amazing Greg Bruce, who led them to his solar city, Townsville, Australia 🇦🇺 and now we were on our way to Mumbai, India 🇮🇳 What a journey!

We are 15 CUNY students, who may have taken an environmental science, biology and/or chemistry course, where we met the supervising professors. However, we aren't all Science, Technology. Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) majors. For instance, I study Public Health and did the Environmental Health course. What we are, are budding engineers, doctors, chemist and financial gurus, who probably never thought studying a course outside of our field would've allowed us such an amazing opportunity.

The application process was detailed: fill a form, write an essay, come to an interview and wait 😫. The wait was worth it and the days went by quickly. The team met for the first time, as a group on July 9th. We got familiar with our instruments on the 16th and 23rd July, 2019. On the 26th July we were invited to the Consulate General of India in the USA for a farewell event and the next Tuesday we were off.

The day of the first meeting, I had to run from my summer session Creative Writing class to Meister Hall, luckily the meeting was on my campus, but I still arrived late. What a way to start 🤦🏾‍♀️

First Meeting: Orientation

Second Meeting: Learning the Basics & SPARC Training, because we need to know what's allowed 😉🙃

Third Meeting:  Teasers of our equipment mounts from Greg Bruce and team and more device setup. 

All in all, the meetings are great to ask all your questions and to get familiar with the people you'll be living with for the 2 weeks but most importantly get familiar with your devices because when you're out working anything can happen and you need to know how to fix it, or else you'll waste the entire day.

I'll tell you about our Consulate General visit in the next post.

[faith-f-writes-from-bk-to-b-blog]

To India & back

After demonstrating our willingness to learn in class, writing an essay to confirm this and having our professors’ recommendation, 15 City University of New York (CUNY) students were chosen to participate in a Study Abroad Program in India.

The program was designed to allow us a practical approach to sustainability from a global perspective. At the end, we were expected to gain knowledge on the theory and practice of sustainable development, bridge our traditions with the modern world, spirituality with science and wisdom with practice, and also create an opportunity for cultural exchange, thereby broadening our perspective on life. For the most part, we will be accommodated at Govardhan EcoVillage (GEV), a “biodiversity hotspot” just outside the city of Mumbai, but will visit the heart of Mumbai and other outlying communities for a few days. 

We are from 4 CUNY Schools – Bronx Community College, La Guardia Community College, Medgar Evers College and York College. 

Meet the budding scientist: 

• Daniella Amador

• Marcelis Arias 

• Wilkins Cerda 

• Absari Chowdhury 

• Faith Forde (Me 💁🏾‍♀️)

• Lisa Garcia 

• Nirmela Govinda

• Noshka González– Sanchez

• Jostin Guerrero

• Kayesha Hancel 

• Anida Palokaj

• Hemwattie Rampersaud 

• Kamau Straughan 

• Sparkle Sillim 

• Grissel De Jesus Sosa 

The actual scientists in charge of us: 

• Greg Bruce

• Dr. Neal Phillips 

• Paramita Sen 

• Dr. Derek Skeete

Join me, as I recap our yatra, through my eyes, to India & back. 

Feel free to ask questions. My colleagues, professors or I will try to answer your questions.