"I wish every weekend could be like this!"

Hey everyone,

After months of planning and preparation, with a little improvisation at the end, we can now confidently say we've finished a greatly successful first U-Lead conference! The last day was a bittersweet end for everyone, as we had all become closer than ever and had to go our separate ways after the experience of a lifetime. Hopefully, the final day brought together all the themes of the conference and concluded with a message of inspiration.

 We were fortunate enough to begin the day hearing from several Operation Smile veterans from the  American School of Bombay. Lisa and Usha, the presidents of ASB's club and participants at ISLC 2010, were joined by Tarini, a member of the club and U-Lead participant, and Usha, the club sponsor and a mission sponsor. The group discussed the many opportunities students have within Operation Smile, including their personal mission stories, an overview of their experience at ISLC, and some tips and ideas for fundraising in their schools.

After lunch, the students went to breakout sessions with the three College Council members one last time. Each group attended Jake's presentation about starting and maintaining student clubs, Logan's presentation about holding successful fundraisers, and Claire's presentation about understanding your own personality strengths and how to interact with others.

The final games of the conference then determined which team would ultimately win the whole weekend. Each team had to present their banners after being judged by our esteemed panel of teachers and Andrew...once again, team White took the victory, closely followed by Team Green and then Team Orange. A competitive game of Operation Smile ensued, testing the knowledge each student had learned over the past few days. With very close scores, the final win again went to Team White, who won best team in the overall competition!

As a final event, we wrapped up the conference in true Operation Smile fashion...with a final party. The superintendent was kind enough to host us at his home, which must the most beautiful residence in all Mumbai. With a lovely porch boasting a view of the water, we listened to music, talked, ate, and danced until the sun set over the Arabian Sea. We heard one student jokingly say, "At first I just wanted to come to this to miss a day of school, but it wasn't a waste of a weekend at all!" and another said, "I wish everyone weekend could be like this." We all left the conference in disbelief that it was over but with the hope that we'll see each other again soon.

Claire, Jake, and Logan left Mumbai later that night knowing that this wouldn't be the last time they visited Mumbai. A truly unique city, it is now filled with unforgettable memories and some of the best friends we could imagine...how can we possibly stay away?

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped and supported us during this conference, especially Andrew, Mansi, ASB, Student Programs, and most of all the amazing students who attended the conference.

We are now back in the States and wish the JV team in Panama the best of luck. We know you'll hold a fantastic conference, and we can't wait to hear about it!

Love always,
Claire, Jake, and Logan

Second Day= Winning

Hello Again Everyone!

Winning, Winning. Second day was a great success. The day started out at 8 at the beautiful American School of Bombay. After a great roud of the Cupid Shuffle, the first speaker was Program Coordinator Rohan Das. He talked to the students about what it meant to lead and why students should lead. Then was a breakout session lead by us about Service, about why it is important to give back to the community and the ways they can do it.

After a quick lunch, we headed off in buses to the Aseema School. There, the students gave presentations on Nutrition, Dental Hygiene, Burn Care and Prevention, and Oral Rehydration Therapy to the kids of the Aseema school. This was a great time for the students to practice the health modules they learned on the first day. Once we returned to ASB, the students attended three breakout sessions on three of the pillars of student programs. The breakout sessions were Leadership(Jake), Awareness(Logan), and Education(Claire).

Then they filled out evaluations for the first day and the day ended with an intense game of soccer in the gym, with Logan's team being the victors. Can't wait for the last day, although we are very sad we have to leave.

Talk to you soon!
Jake, Claire, Logan

During Rohan's presentation: What do you do every day? Why do you do it? WHO do you do it for?

Presenting the Dental Hygiene module to the Aseema School

Aseema's students taking notes

CC (modeling U-Lead shirts) with Rohan after his presentation 

A friendly day of soccer to wrap up the day!

First Day = Success

Hey everyone!

Today was the very first day of the VERY first U-Lead conference...ever. 32 students and 3 teachers showed up to the American School of Bombay for a day full of meeting new people, listening to inspirational speakers, and learning more about Operation Smile.

We begin our day with icebreakers and team bonding within our three teams. Jake is team orange, Claire is team white, and Logan is team green, which make up the colors of the Indian flag. We then listened to former program coordinator Abhishek Sengupta for an informative and inspirational overview of Operation Smile India and its history.

After a quick lunch, we proceeded to teaching our four health modules (Nutrition, Burn Care & Prevention, Oral Rehydration Therapy, and Dental Hygiene). Tomorrow the students will be teaching these health modules to students at the Aseema School, a school for underprivileged children. To help with their presentations, the students were split into groups to create posters and interactive presentations.

Then Yasser Ali, the founder of Amore Gelato (with over 25 locations throughout India), spoke about his personal success and using that success to give back to the community. Yasser was nice enough to bring gelato for all of our conference's participants.

Finally to cap off the day, we played a competitive game of capture the flag. Claire's team won the game with 3 points, followed by Logan's team with 2, and Jake's with 0.

We are looking for another great day tomorrow filled with service and reaching out to the community.

Goodnight from Bombay!


Love,

The Varsity Team -- Claire, Jake, and Logan

Abhishek presents about Operation Smile's history and the development of Operation Smile in India

Yasser brings gelato for the students after his presentation

Students create posters to help teach their health modules

Yash shows true team spirit during capture the flag :)

Team's Day Out!

Hello hello!

It's been another fun and busy day in bustling Mumbai. This was our free day, so we started early and have been shopping, bargaining, and eating nonstop ever since! Once again, we made the journey to South Mumbai, which has a completely different atmosphere than the area we're staying in. With no rickshaws, more tourists, and surrounded by the Arabian Sea, it boasts a unique and beautiful part of the city. After eating at a wonderful cafe, we made our way to the Gateway of India, where Claire became a local celebrities as people saw her red hair and asked to take photos with her. We then walked through the beautiful Taj Mahal Hotel and took a few photos of the incredible landmark.

Next we arrived at the famous Causeway, a long sidewalk lined with vendors where we could do all our personal shopping. Jake was the professional and managed to deal all sellers down to dirt cheap prices. Logan had bad luck with people following him around trying desperately to sell him drums. We took a break to have lunch at the famous Leopold Cafe, a favorite for tourists. We spent the rest of our time in South Mumbai gathering a few last-minute things, walking by the water and eating a light dinner on the roof of a hotel with a gorgeous view of the sunset. We've all decided it's safe to say this is the best Spring Break we've ever had! We're wrapping up a few things for the beginning of the conference tomorrow and couldn't be more excited to meet all the students and get started!

Love,
Claire, Jake, and Logan

Gateway of India

Celebs for a day!

Lunch at Leopold Cafe

India:Somehow it just works

Hello again everyone,

Yesterday(Wednesday) was supply collecting day for the conference. So, we ventured into South Mumbai to the Crawford Market to buy all of our supplies. The scene was incredible, streets and alleyways packed with vendors and wholesalers as far as the eye could see. We bought tons of supplies for the conference, everything from poster boards to custom water bottles. However, once we had everything, we were stuck with a ton of stuff and we were 45 minutes away from the office! Luckily, we snagged a couple of big cabs and brought our supplies back to the office to start getting them ready for the conference.


Everything seems to be coming together. The shirts and water bottles are done, everything else is set, just some final work on our presentations and we will be ready for the conference on Friday! Today we are going to be tourists and see everything that one is supposed to see in Mumbai, so be ready for us to tell you all about it.

Goodbye for now!

Jake, Claire, Logan

Some Updates!

Hello again everyone!

Today is officially our second full day in the beautiful city of Mumbai. We couldn't be more excited as to what today holds in store for us.

Yesterday we got the opportunity to meet with representatives from the American School of Bombay. We were able to make clarifications for our conference, establish what we wanted for our rooms, and got to see the school itself. It's really an amazing school and will be perfect for our conference starting on Friday. In addition, we were able to see Operation Smile's office here in the city. We couldn't have imagined a nicer building and a nicer staff. We were able to try some chai (the Indian office worker's equivalent of coffee) at the office. We all agreed we could easily get into the habit of drinking chai everyday.

Today will be an even busier day! We are heading off to Crawford Market (a wholesaler market -- the equivalent of Costco) to pick up our pre-ordered water bottles, t-shirts, and other items for the conference.

That is all we have to update for now, so we'll make sure to keep you all posted about our conference and what we are up to!

Love,

Logan, Claire, and Jake

Namaste from Mumbai!

Hello everyone,

We finally made it to Mumbai after a long flight. We(Claire and Logan) saw the Magees coming in to Norfolk as we left, so that had to be a good sign for the U-Lead to come. Met Jake in Newark, and now we are here in Mumbai. After a good sleep last night to get rid of our jet lag, we are here and ready to start the first U-Lead India student conference! Right now, we are going over every logistic and possible problem that could happen for the conference. So far, we are running in to none! We have 34 students registered, which is a perfect number. The conference will be held at The American School of Bombay, which has generously donated their location and resources to helping our conference be amazing! At the conference, students from high schools throughout Mumbai will learn how to develop their own student clubs and hopefully raise student involvement in Operation Smile throughout India. In addition, these students will get an opportunity to get involved on an international level and change the lives of children all over the world. The possibilities are endless, and this conference is just the jumping off point. We are so excited, look forward to more updates to come!

Goodbye for now!
Jake, Claire, and Logan (and Andrew)