By Jayanti Lama   

If you are thinking of pursuing your Master’s degree, you should probably think of a very rigorous and intensive course and this fellowship will come as the one for you. Because you will start with a very good note, which begins with meeting very inspiring and weird mentors as your interviewers. Inspiring because they will share their most heart rendering stories and weird because they will push you so hard to share your own story which you have never thought worth it.

The process doesn’t end here itself. You will get frequent calls for your many interviews that come in series. And if you get selected, you will be among the most self-motivated bunch of people as a starter for your fellowship journey- the 42-days residential learning institute. Believe me, you will know the reason behind your knowledge of calling Nepal as a place with unity in diversity and will accept it as your biggest success if you can survive these 42 days with people from diverse backgrounds and mindsets.

You won’t feel that you have been working at all. Instead, you will feel that you are in some university which takes you to field visits and leaves you with too many tasks. Your task begins with serving the community you are placed in, be it by teaching, going for home visits or running awareness programs which you will start learning on real ground.

You will also get continuous feedbacks and appreciations for the work done. Sometimes you will get way too better and sometimes you will go way too low but you will have faith in yourself that you can actually make a difference. And even if you think you couldn’t make any difference in others’ lives you will surely make a difference in yours.

As a fellow, you will also learn many skills such as “Report Writing” because you will have to submit your assignments given by your Leadership Development Managers. No doubt, you too will learn to analyze and reflect. If you are never careful about numbers, no worries you will begin to track down data. You will also start reading bulky books as your fellowship course which will eventually leave you curious and confused about the first word that you heard being at Teach For Nepal- “Leadership”. You will begin to realize what it takes to be a leader and will believe that you are making a significant contribution to your nation. You will start believing on your work that all children in Nepal will get an excellent education even if you don’t know how. And finally, you will get progress card for your work which will make you feel even more like being at university.

On the final note, if you have a habit of not writing even a sentence, you will end up articulating facts like I’ve started doing. So, the choice is yours, which course you want to enroll in; the university with theoretical learning approach or practical learning. Because “The greatest power you have is the power to choose”.

2015 Fellow Jayanti Lama teaches in Bidhyadhishwari Higher Secondary School in Ashrang-6, Lalitpur.