Uttaraa Jadhav

“India, Nature, and people, each individually and both together as a whole give a deep experience of life! I serve in study abroad to share this deep experience with young and intelligent minds of India and America. Studying abroad in India is teamwork. It is tough and demanding. This work gives me the opportunity to use all the skills that I acquired since 1980 when I started working. I play many roles here: The director, a good friend, a quiet listener, a firm administrator, a respectful colleague and an understanding parent to children I barely got introduced to! I get to work with layers of society and absolutely different cultures. I need to be objective and fearless. It is an enriching experience of understanding and interpreting. I get to be creative! We introduced folkdance and it was fabulous! Introduced Indian Buddies, which was a forced friendship but worked! Both Indian and American students are making friendships that would last. Last but not the least, I could introduce the Indian student advisor – Abhishek. Now he has taken up the responsibility of being Assistant Resident Director. His parents said to us, “We had a gem but you found him!” I face challenges. We occasionally have angry host parents, frustrated students, mismatch of expectations between students and the organization. Remaining calm and saying “Om” to myself is really tough but I still love the process of resolving everything in the benefit of our students. I serve in this field because it fulfills my wish to live a quality life. Quality of life means being and remaining human to me. However professionally demanding this field may be, it is rewarding in more than one ways!”