February 24, 2023

Bringing Children Together

Today I acted as a mentor for the Parikrma Festival of Science. During this festival, over 300 students from more than 20 schools all came together to learn about the topic of food science. The students would receive lectures from different food industry professionals and researchers and then get tasked with competing in a Hackathon focused on who could create the best solution to address food problems around the globe. I, along with two other mentors from the Parikrma staff, was tasked with guiding 28 children from four different schools to work together and create a 5-minute presentation on the topic of food problems in China.

The festival of science had many complications and logistical issues, of which I would not ordinarily be a fan. The auditorium where most of the lectures occurred was far too small for 300 hundred children to sit, with many children and staff having to squeeze together on the stairs for everyone to fit. Additionally, 28-person groups felt far too large for a 5-minute presentation, and not much preparation time was provided. I was concerned that students from richer schools or students with more dominant personalities would overtake the other students and not everyone would have a chance to participate.

It seems that my fears were mostly alleviated on the final day. I was shocked at how well the students all meshed together! The kids who were richer or smarter made sure that everyone had a chance to provide some input and left some space for everyone to talk. As mentors, we all guided the children to make sure that everyone had some role to play in the presentation. Some of the Parikrma students in our group even volunteered to act as translators for the government school children, who happened to only speak Kannada. Everyone ended up coming together, and the result was beautiful.

We didn’t end up winning the hackathon, but victory was not the point, at least not for our group. As far as I’m concerned our group was filled with champions who succeeded at the most important thing: working together and forming bonds without leaving anyone behind. If I was put in charge of the Festival of Science, I still would have done a lot of things differently, but at the end of the day, I was able to leave the festival feeling proud of the children I mentored. The future is bright, and I can’t wait to see what’s next in store for these students.

By Aditya