Now that Tufts has canceled classes for Monday evening and Tuesday, you can spend your snow day planning for warmer, sunnier days. Our final post in the “Finding Summer Opportunities” series takes us around the globe to the rural village of Rayale, Nepal:

My name’s Nick Macaluso, and I’m a senior majoring in biology and environmental studies. I’m a member of GlobeMed at Tufts, a student-run organization comprised of over 45 members dedicated to promoting and supporting global public health equity and social justice. We are a part of a larger national organization that pairs each of its 52 participating collegiate chapters with a grassroots international health organization. Through these cooperative and sustainable relationships students and communities are able to work together to pursue the mutual goal of improving health globally. Our chapter is partnered with the organization PHASE Nepal, a Nepali based non-profit organization that provides free healthcare to the rural people of various communities in Nepal. Last summer, I was fortunate enough to intern with PHASE Nepal, working in a public secondary school with four other students in a rural village called Rayale.

Nick Macaluso with village boys

Because my internship was coordinated through GlobeMed, it was purely volunteer work and I was not paid. However, thanks to resources provided through Tufts, my travel, lodging, food, and equipment costs were entirely covered. I was able to spend an amazing six weeks in Nepal for free! If you’re interested in a similar opportunity, consider applying for funding through the Anne E. Borghesani Memorial Foundation and the Tufts IGL Empower Program for Social Enterpreneurship.

The Anne E. Borghesani Memorial Prize is organized through the IR department, but students of all majors and backgrounds are encouraged to apply for it. Funds are provided for students engaging in research, internships, or other work abroad in a foreign country. The donors like to see creativity and originality, so try to wow them with your application!

The Empower Program (a component of the Tufts Institute for Global Leadership) is also open to students of all majors. An interesting and noteworthy feature of the Empower grant is that students do not have to travel abroad to receive it. Internships and research in the States are also eligible for funding, so everyone should consider it if their summer plans fit the definition of “social entrepreneurship”!

To give you an idea of my day-to-day experiences, I was working as an English and health teacher in a local government (public) school in the Nepali village called Bhalchandra school. I worked with students from grade four to grade ten in multiple contexts, including teaching English and creative writing as well as establishing and directing extracurricular child clubs, which are similar to student governments. Child clubs are school-run student groups endorsed by the Nepali government that act as forums for conversation and action in areas such as child rights, child protection, youth empowerment and leadership, health education, and extracurricular activities.

Nick Macaluso with village girls

Part of the PHASE education development program is to improve teaching methods with the help of highly-trained traveling PHASE staff. I was able to sit through certification sessions, where PHASE teacher-trainers observed lessons taught by schoolteachers and provided feedback. Following the session, several teachers were newly designated as mentors with the responsibility of using their new skills and knowledge to further PHASE education initiatives with their fellow faculty. Watching this process allowed me a glimpse into how exactly PHASE works to improve educational practices in these rural schools.

In addition to working in the local schools, I was also able to experience the livelihood and health aspects of PHASE programs by spending time with on-the-ground PHASE staff in their respective roles. Kriti, an Auxiliary Nurse Midwife in training allowed me to observe her in the health outpost multiple days, and Kabita, a livelihood specialist, came out to Rayale to guide me around local “practical plots” that were grown with the help and training of PHASE staff. Even though my time spent experiencing PHASE’s health and livelihood sectors was comparatively short, I was grateful for the opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of the PHASE approach to breaking the poverty cycle.

Experiencing firsthand PHASE’s multifaceted model of development in rural communities allowed my team and I to see how the three programs (education, livelihood and health) work together to create a sustainable solution in the project areas. Isolated attention on any one of the three programs would not effectively break the cycle of poverty; the best quality education will do little to help a child who is too hungry to concentrate or absent due to illness. Likewise a child in good health can never reach his maximum potential if the school system is failing him. Realizing the interconnectedness of these three aspects while in the villages helped our team fully understand the PHASE mission of achieving self-empowerment by engaging communities rather than providing a one-time delivery of external aid.