Since
Saturday, I’ve sat down to start this blog post eight times. All eight times, I’ve stared at my computer
screen, written a few words, and quickly come to the realization that some of
the events of the past week simply cannot be done justice with words. This really hit home when I was trying to
explain why the visit to Goldman Sachs was so incredible to one of my closest
friends – I wrote a long paragraph or so, and when I was done I sent the
message and then re-read it, thinking that it didn’t even begin to capture what
that day was really like. So, if I can
convey even a quarter of what I want to in my ninth attempt at completing this
post, it will be an enormous success.
Last
Wednesday, the other volunteers and I went to several villages near SB to learn
more about our surroundings. Before
stepping into the first village, we were warned that relations between SB and
this village were not great – a while back, one of the village’s goats had
wandered into SB land and one of the SB security guards cut its head off so
that the kids could have mutton that night.
This infuriated the villagers, who declared that the next time anyone
from SB came near their village, they would be beheaded in return. Relations have improved since then, but it
was still a little unsettling (although pretty funny looking back on it) to
hear that as we walked into the village.
The next
two hours were sobering to say the least.
Even having seen rural poverty in India before, the conditions that we
saw in some of the villages were incomprehensible to anyone that has ever lived
in a place with a bathroom or space to walk around indoors. The picture below shows one of the makeshift
homes in these villages, which were populated mostly by people from backward or
scheduled castes (the lowest designations in the caste system in India). It housed a family of five in less space than
a common room in the socials at Amherst.
It had no bathroom, and the facility that served as a bathroom is also
pictured below. Again, even though I had
seen similar conditions before (maybe not quite as intense, but bleak
nonetheless), knowing that many SB kids come from these kinds of villages
made it much more powerful.
Outdoor bathroom
Center of the village
In the
last village we visited, one of the women gave us flowers as we left her home,
which really stuck with me. Despite
having almost nothing, this woman wanted to give something meaningful to these
random outsiders that came into her home; the fact that she was showing us appreciation was extremely humbling
and gave me plenty of food for thought, to say the least.
Back at
SB, the entire week was a hectic and exhausting blur. On top of classes and news and everything in
the normal schedule, we were holding nightly prep sessions for my business
students to get them ready for Goldman.
We practiced interview skills, conversations, answers to common
interview questions, posture, and general presentation tips, among other
things.
When the
big Goldman Sachs day finally came on Saturday, the kids were clearly both
excited and nervous. A bus from GS came
to pick us up at 8 am, and we headed to Bangalore blasting music, dancing, and
singing. As we got to the GS business
complex, however, the bus quieted and the butterflies the kids were having were
apparent on their faces. We received our
security IDs after walking in and meeting the SB business graduates, who had
arrived before us. Together, we took the
elevators up to the meeting room with the Goldman Sachs reps who were running
the session. Some of my business
students had never been on an elevator before, so I’m sure that did nothing to
calm them down.
On the way to Bangalore!
After
eating breakfast, we got started with a lengthy icebreaker and a presentation
on Goldman’s business divisions. Then we
broke for lunch and came back together to do a series of workshops on
leadership and interview skills before wrapping up the day. Throughout the five plus hours we were there,
the kids were simply amazing. Both the
grads and the current SB students blew the Goldman reps away with their
confidence, ability to ask thoughtful questions, knowledge of the company, and
advanced interview skills. It’s really
hard to convey just how incredible they were, but there were several points
during the day when I was so proud of them that I couldn’t even hold it
in. One of the grads, Shashi, gave a
better presentation on leadership than any of the Goldman reps could have, and
then proceeded to thank them at the end of the day on behalf of all the
students, invoking one of their business principles as he did so. When he talked, I actually saw some of the
Goldman people’s jaws drop a little bit.
Afterwards, the executive officer of the Bangalore office talked to
Stella and Pushpa, the two SB grads who now work at Goldman, about how in her
12 years at the company she had never seen a more remarkable group of
kids. She actually offered her email
address to a graduate and talked about how she wanted to visit SB because she
was so impressed. I have literally never
been prouder of anyone than I was of my kids that day. It’s hard to put into words, but going from
the village tour to Goldman Sachs and seeing the kids do so well in a setting
that they wouldn’t have been able to even conceive of without being at SB made
the experience so much more profound and incredible.
All smiles after GS
Why wouldn't you dance on the bus?
Of
course, after we left GS, it was time for some fun. We took the kids to a mall in Bangalore and
roamed around with them for a while before treating them to McDonald’s. It was a day of many firsts for most of them –
first elevator ride, first time on an escalator, first McFlurry, and many
others. In fact, I was actually worried
and had to hold on to some of them on the escalators because they weren’t sure
how to get on and off!
In front of Forum Mall!
First time on an escalator! It's all smiles until you have to get on and off....
Group pic with the smurfs
Me and some of the grads!
SB graduates/superstars
Shashi and Pushpa!
To top it
off, Em and I decided to combine our special snacks (a volunteer tradition here
is buying the kids some kind of snack before you leave) into providing Krispy
Kreme donuts for the entire school, so when we got back to SB that night we
surprised the kids with their first donuts.
It really was one of the most awesome days I can remember. We were discussing it later that night with
the kids, and one of the volunteers said that we should have the assembly to
debrief everyone on GS sooner rather than later so that the details stay fresh
in everyone’s mind. One of my 11th
graders, Aravind, looked up and simply responded, “Do you really think I’m ever
going to forget today?” That really just
says it all.
The donut sponsors!
He can blow the minds of people at Goldman Sachs but can't choose between identical donuts
Abuse.
Volunteers!
Sunday
passed pretty quickly on campus and this week is already going full force. We had four volunteers leave over the weekend
so everyone’s schedule is jam-packed this week.
I’m filling in for a bunch of seventh grade classes on top of my usual
business schedule, which is cool because I’m getting to know them much better
than I did before.
One last
fun fact: Ever since I was sick that one
night, I’ve discovered that TUMS are freaking delicious. I haven’t been sick since (knock on wood),
but now I’m eating at least five TUMS every day just for fun. Good times.
That’s it for now (if you’ve even managed to make it through the last
1,000 plus words), but here are some more pics!
