internship in India Oscar Garcia

Hello my name is Oscar Garcia I'm a Senior Political science major at Dillard University in New Orleans. I'm 21 years old and a first generation college student in my family. I was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and eventually moved to the United States where I've lived for 8 years now. When I moved here at 12, I mastered English in 6 months during my 7th grade year. In high school, my interest in foreign affairs grew when I joined the Model UN club. During my senior year, I was able to travel to Doha, Qatar and attend a mock United Nations conference where, I presented a policy for a mock environmental crisis.

I am preparing myself to go Bangalore, India for my internship with Pasand, a social enterprise that educates adolescents on personal health and wellness. Through an interactive and academically-rigorous curriculum, Pasand directly addresses the long-standing silence surrounding personal health education. By facilitating open dialogue, Pasand creates safe communities of learning that encourage confidence and self-respect among its students throughout their journey to adulthood.

During the internship, I will be trained as a professional Pasand Facilitator which includes topics on (1) female and male reproductive anatomy & reproductive health, (2) emotions, attractions, relationships and (3) safety for adolescents including safe/unsafe touch, forms of abuse, how to protect the self from it and report it. After undergoing 6 weeks of rigorous training, I will be certified to give sessions to adolescents to educate them on personal health and wellness.

Here's a bit of background on Pasand. The company aims to achieve an increase of knowledge regarding the topics mentioned above. Furthermore, Pasand intends to initiate conversations about these topics in order to reduce the shame and silence around one's own body and reproductive health and to increase the self-confidence of adolescents to support them during their growing-up time.

Supporting the local Pasand team with the facilitation of programs on personal health and wellness will give me a lot of experience regarding teaching and interacting on ground.

The knowledge and experience that I gain while in India are something that I will take with me and apply to my own community. This internship is one of the many steps that I'm taking to prepare myself for a future in foreign service and the foreign service exam. With your contribution to my campaign, I can help changing the world and become one of the leaders of tomorrow. It has always been my dream to travel and help people, I believe being a Foreign service officer is the best means of doing so. I have always believed in altruism, selfless concern of the well-being of others. I plan to spread my ideals of altruism throughout my travels in aims to help people and promote people do so in their communities. Through your very appreciated contributions, my dream can become a reality. Thank you!