As Seema Kumari, a 17-year-old girl from a village in Ormanjhi, a football coach and a recent graduate of Jharkhand-based NGO, Yuwa, waits eagerly to attend Harvard University in the United States, with full scholarship in August 2021, she recollects memories of her U.S. visit last time in 2019.
She was selected for the US Government sponsored Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study (YES) programme, and she studied in Peninsula High School for two semesters, around ten months.
The YES programme provides merit-based scholarships for eligible high school students. High school students study at a US high school and live with a US family for one academic year.
The participants serve as “youth ambassadors” of their home country, promoting mutual understanding by forming lasting relationships with their host families and communities.
Seema was elated when she got the news that she was selected for the YES programme from her school principal, Rose Thomson Gastler.
Later, she got a confirmation email from AFS Intercultural Programs-India. Initially she was scared wondering if she would be bullied there or not. Unknown fear grasped her. But at the same time, she was happy and excited that she was selected for such a prestigious programme.
After three-day orientation in New Delhi, and one-day orientation in Washington DC, she flew to Seattle. She reached Seattle in six hours and was received at the airport by her host family, who gave her a mini tour of Seattle in their car.
Seema fondly recollects how excited she was. She said the city was so clean and well planned like in her dream.
She stayed with her host family in Gig Harbor, which is one hour away from Seattle, but close to Peninsula High School, where her classes were conducted.
Two children of her host family also studied in the same school. She attended six classes per day, and in each class, there were around 30 students from different countries — France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Norway, Germany, Greece, Tanzania, Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Palestine, and Pakistan, who came for the same YES programme. Seema enjoyed the technology-based teaching and learning process, different from what she was used to, in Jharkhand.
She was surprised to see the options for a wide range of subjects to study, and was happy to get the opportunity to join some fun classes like choir, drama etc.
She maintained a hectic schedule of attending school from 7.30 am-2 pm. After school, she practiced cross country running (a sport in which individuals/teams run a race on open-air courses, 4-12km long, and may include surfaces of grass, earth, and pass-through woodlands and hills). And when that ended, Seema volunteered at a thrift store. In the evening, after returning home, she had to do her assignments.
While in the US for ten months, she missed her parents, as much as she missed traditional food, and festivals. But she made it up by celebrating the festivals there — Christmas, Halloween, and Easter. One of her memorable time is when she visited Portland with her host family, and celebrated Christmas there with their grandparents. She had never celebrated Christmas earlier. It was a new experience for her. Another memory she cherishes is going to snow clad Mount Rainier.
In her words, “I did not see snow clad mountain before, except in movies. It was a life-time experience for me.”
Seema’s journey from a remote village in suburban Ranchi to one of the strongest democracies of the world, is inspiring. She has opened a pathway to many marginalised girls residing in distant villages. They can now idolise her and be motivated to be like her.