January | 2012 | peytonprater

As many of you know, I will be graduating this May from CU Boulder and have the amazing opportunity to chaperone a group of 9 students from East High School on a service-learning trip to India this summer. I have brought you here (to this blog) for two reasons:

ONE: I am going to use this space throughout the summer to write about my travels to India and beyond. This is where I will post pictures, tell stories, write poems, etc. There are many reasons that people travel–to eat, to rest, to experience new things, to serve. I am traveling to India to explore a beautiful, rich culture, to learn all I can from the people I meet and the places I visit. I am also going on this trip to explore what it means, as a teacher, to take students to another country, to teach way outside of the classroom. I will be leading this trip, along with two teachers from East and one other recent college grad. Next fall, I will be student teaching. My hope is that if I can manage to lead nine students to India and back, I will be able to teach high school students a thing or two about English. Stay tuned…we will see.

TWO: The second reason that I have brought you here is that in order to go on this trip, I need to raise approximately $2000. After spending some time thinking of ways to go about this, I realized that what I love more than anything is to make things: scarves, books, hats, slippers, cards, food, etc. I love to create cute/useful/meaningful products in sustainable ways, from things that already exist. This is what have I decided to do to raise money for my trip. In exchange for donations, I have made (or will make, in colors of your choice), the following items: