Hi everyone!  My name is Bevan and I am a rising junior from Philadelphia. I am majoring in Environmental Science in the college. I’ll be working with Samaj Pragati Sahayog in the Dewas District of Madhya Pradesh this summer.  SPS is an organization that aims to improve rural livelihoods by: managing the local watershed, helping farmers through agriculture and livestock programs, facilitating self-help groups, empowering women through garment production, and decreasing undernourishment through public meal programs.

Within my environmental science field of study, I am especially interested in sustainable agriculture, food justice, and sustainable development.  I also love to travel, and have spent summers studying language in China and France.  I chose to participate in a CASI internship because my interests align so well with what SPS does, and because of the location.  I wanted to spend my summer in India because in the future, I hope to have an international career in sustainability.  Because India is soon to be the world’s most populous country and is still largely underdeveloped in certain areas, understanding Indian culture and how grassroots organizations like SPS work will be key in looking toward a more sustainable future for India.

With regard to my work at SPS this summer, I’m most looking forward to learning more about all of the different projects SPS is working on and how this all fits together into one organization.  I also look forward to making field visits to see the physical work SPS is doing with agriculture or the watershed or to interview people who benefit from SPS.  I am also excited to see what sorts of products Kumbaya, the SPS clothing enterprise, has to offer (and hope to buy a lot of them!).

I’m currently sitting in the Frankfurt airport awaiting the second leg of my flight to New Delhi.  Over the past fourteen hours of travel, I’ve had a lot of time to second-guess my packing choices, wonder about what awaits me in Delhi, and worry about not knowing Hindi, but I’m confident this will be a great learning experience nonetheless!