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Internships & Service Learning

The India Center promotes student learning through independent studies and internships. India offers a breadth of internships from volunteering with children through Mother Theresa's group of nuns to helping women become empowered in rural areas. Students work with a faculty advisor to pursue the topic of their choice, which may involve volunteer work with a local organization.

Some recent subjects that have been studied include:

  • Conflict resolution.
  • The life of Gandhi.
  • Intercultural communication.
  • Women's literature.
  • Effects of tourism on indigenous people.
  • Effects of globalization on traditional practices.
  • Media and local culture.
  • Societies in transition/rural development.
  • Tibetan medicine.
  • Alternative systems of healing.
  • Meditation and holistic spirituality.
  • Sustainable and organic agriculture.
  • Wildlife and human conflict in South Asia.
  • An internship within elephant rehabilitation center in Assam.
  • Effects of urbanization on natural resources.
  • Therapeutic yoga and Vipasana; the way traditional yogic practice can heal.
  • Superstitions and supernatural beliefs of Indian religious groups.

Examples of independent study locations include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Navadarshanam, community based on sustainable living
  • Dr. Narayan Reddy's farm, organic farming
  • Auroville, alternative community
  • Missionaries of Charity, volunteer work
  • BOSCO, street children organization
  • Life and Society of Rajasthan, cultural study
  • Community Healthcare & Traditional Healing Practices: Child Birth Experiences of India (Government/Public hospital in Bangalore & Primary Health Center in Bangalore rural district)
  • Global Migration and Refugee Studies: A Study of the Tibetan Community in Exile, at Dharmsala (Himachal Pradesh) and Bylucuppe (Karnataka)
  • Yoga Philosophy and Practice, undertaken at a Yoga Ashram and deemed Yogic Sciences University near Bangalore
  • Sexuality and Sex Education in Indian Context (conducted at Bangalore and Sikkim)
  • Nutrition and Health – volunteering and observer ship at Freedom Foundation, an organization working for HIV/AIDS patients' treatment, care and as support group
  • Women's Empowerment: Tilonia (Ajmer district in Rajasthan)
  • Public and Community Health issues relating to reproductive and child health care aspects at Institute of Health Management, Pachod and Pune in Maharashtra