Location: Houston, TX 

Position:  Volunteer Intern

Description: positions available for volunteeering, outreach, and pro-bono services 

Language Requirement: Hindi, Urdu, and/or Bengali

Language Use: Daya serves South Asian victims of domestic violence, so it's helpful to have South Asian language skills when interacting with folks.

Impact on Language Skills: strong language improvement

Opportunity Found Through: peer recommendation

Paid: No 

Application Process: directly email or call the organization 

Contact Information: 

Location: Chennai, TN, India (but the applicants can propose anywhere in South Asia)

Description: Through this grant, I conducted research for my music thesis on Thevaram, a genre of Tamil devotional music. I learned Thevaram formally from Sargurunathan Odhuvar of the Kapaleeswarar Temple and also collected publications and recordings on Thēvāram for my research. The application included submitting a project proposal, budget, and 1 letter of recommendation. The fellowship can support an internship, research, or program of study.

Language Use: Tamil (but this is specific to my project and location). Since I was living in Chennai for the summer, I used Tamil extensively to communicate. Furthermore, I read Thevaram literature and commentaries directly in Tamil. Through immersion, I was definitely able to practice my Tamil more and improve my fluency. I was also able to improve my knowledge of formal Tamil by reading commentaries and literature in Tamil as part of my research.

Paid: The grant covered airfare, lodging, and other living expenses for a summer abroad in India.

Contact Information: Hamsa Shanmugam (hamsa_shanmugam@brown.edu)