1. Ashoka India: A Summer Internship in
Bangalore and Beyond

2. The Work
Venture and Fellowship are the flagship programs at Ashoka India.
This summer I was an intern for these programs, which work to
support and network social entrepreneurs all around India (and
around the world).
During my 10 weeks in India, I worked on a variety of projects, including:
Preparing for and facilitating a on-site meeting of Ashoka Fellows to discuss
solutions to malnutrition
Editing Ashoka literature and online content prior to publication
Creating supplementary literature designed to assist Ashoka Venture Partners in
identifying Fellowship candidates
Designing and collecting data for a comprehensive, up-to-date Fellowship
Directory
Writing a research and interview based article for Ashoka’s Fellowship magazine

3. I had the great fortune to travel extensively during my internship, mostly on
the weekends. Through an agreement with my supervisor, Ira, I was able to
take a whirlwind trip to Rajasthan and Agra with Trap Yates ‘14, another
Princeton Intern at Ashoka. I’ll never forget it!

4. Working with Ashoka
The most rewarding part of working with Ashoka
was being treated like a full-fledged member of the
team, not just as an ‘Intern’.
From my first day I felt I was given the full trust and
confidence of my coworkers, a phenomenal group
of friendly and supportive people from around India
and the world.

5. Traveling with the Fellowship team to an on-site Health Initiative meeting of Fellows.

6. Impact at Ashoka
I supported Ashoka’s Fellowship and Venture teams in a wide
variety of essential projects, including:
Data Collection
Publication Design
Publication Editing
Article Writing
Fellow Meeting Organization/Facilitation
Working with these projects, I feel I brought my own knowledge
and intuition to Ashoka’s collaborative table. I was able to advance
Ashoka’s work with their Fellowship community and contribute to
the discovery and success of new social entrepreneurs who will
change thousands of lives.

7. A wild trip to Kashmir, the contested northern state nestled in the Himalayas between India and Pakistan, was
a both beautiful and chilling glimpse into another world.

8. Future Impact
Although it will take a long time for me to fully digest the vast experience of this
summer, there are several ways I can say with confidence that it has impacted my
future, both by sparking new interests and providing invaluable work experience:
It sparked in me a new interest in social entrepreneurship and especially social
business.
It familiarized me with a real office work environment, providing practical
experience in office dynamics and responsibilities that I can carry with me for
future employment.
It gave me my first experience doing the research, interviewing and writing
necessary to produce an approachable but academic article for a professional
grade magazine.
It immersed me in India’s non-profit world, fueling my desire and passion to bring
positive, large-scale change to the world.

9. Jaipur, Rajasthan was a place of elephants, heat, and the Maharaja’s Amber Palace.

10. Growth
My time in India was filled with incredible experiences – eating new foods, seeing
magnificent palaces and temples, exploring the winding streets of Bangalore and
alleys of Jodhpur. Most important to me, however, were the new people I met. From
these meetings grew a realization that has completely transformed the way I think
about ‘others’, especially about the poor and the suffering around the world:
People are people, no matter where you are. We all love and laugh and live in a way
that unites us in an inexplicable common humanity, even while the details of our
cultures, circumstances, and beliefs are incredibly diverse.
This trip brought me to realize how similar I am to the auto-rickshaw driver in Kerala,
and to the shopkeeper in Jodhpur, and even to the children playing in the dirt under
the overpass beside the Ashoka office.
I do not mean to belittle the struggles of their lives, nor take for granted the many
riches with which I am blessed (by only fortune of birth). To the contrary, my
experiences in India have vastly expanded my appreciation for both. What I mean is
this: India taught me that we are all more than those factors of circumstance; we
share a basic library of emotion and fundamental human experience that relates us all
to one another.
This realization will drive the work I do for the rest of my life.

11. This summer would have been
impossible without Princeton, IIP,
my parents and friends, and the
incredible people of India and
Ashoka. Thank you all so much.