By George Baldini
Last Saturday at Crossover’s first Sports and Education Conference, we volunteers as well as other coaches, parents, and teachers were fortunate enough to enjoy a speech by one of our benefactors, Raju Venkatraman.
Raju Venkatraman giving opening remarks at Crossover Sport in Education Conference
He shared his life story and how he has been able to demonstrate leadership and teamwork – two of the four pillars of Crossover. He emphasized that “nothing comes together unless there is teamwork.” He also offered us advice for growing our program in the coming years. Specifically, he mentioned how it should be a priority to create “local chapters of Crossover in India”. By doing so, we can have Crossover faculty in India year-long, helping develop the program and sustain its impact during the time we are back home in the states.
He also encouraged the interaction of our campers and faculty outside of camp – something we have done for the past week. We have visited Teach For India classrooms and some of our campers’ homes. We plan to interact more, but this has been a wonderful start.