Visiting Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Rohini District 8

July 9, 2025

After breakfast at the hotel, we loaded onto the bus at 6:45am to make it to our next school visit in time for morning assembly. One of our USIEF leaders, Gayatri, brightly greets us, "How's the josh?!" to which we reply, "High!" This call-and-response comes from a Bollywood movie called "Uri: The Surgical Strike." Josh refers to spirit or enthusiasm. According to Ruchi Kaushal, writing for the Hindustan Times, "How's the josh?" has become common in offices and schools, and has been used by PM Narendra Modi. 

Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, located in Delhi’s Rohini, Sector 8, is a co-ed government school that serves around 1,600 students. Government schools in India are similar to public schools in the U.S.—publicly funded and managed. From the moment we stepped through the gate, I was struck by the energy of the place: lush greenery, murals and artwork everywhere (all created by the students!), and the steady hum of student activity.

We started with a short briefing in a conference room before heading back toward the entrance for morning assembly and a welcoming ceremony. I quickly became overwhelmed by the warmth of the community's generous welcome. It was clear they had been thoughtfully preparing for our visit for weeks.

The assembly began with a tika welcoming (and personalized name badges) from some of the younger girls. We were then invited to lay flower garlands over statue busts of India's Freedom Fighters in the school’s “Freedom Fighter Park”—a ritual the school repeats on anniversaries to help students connect with history. “We don’t want students to think Independence Day is just a day,” the Vice Principal told us. “We want them to understand that people laid down their lives... This is one small way they can contribute back.”

Rows of students in blue uniforms stood in orderly lines before the assembly stage. Student Ambassadors led the program, welcoming us with orange scarves trimmed in green. After we took our seats, students shared a “thought of the day” and a message on the importance of kindness. Then came a moving morning prayer, the National Anthem, and dancing—students performed traditional dances representing different regions of India, full of color and rhythm. At one point, a Fulbright alum kindly took my phone so I could join the dancing on stage. I’m not a dancer (or a fan of being on stage), but rather than decline a host, I grabbed two of my fellow teachers, and eventually we all ended up there, laughing and spinning alongside the students.

Afterward, we visited the school’s Heartfulness Lounge, where students begin each day with meditation. I tried to settle into it, but between the sweat running down my face (another 115+ degree day) and the camera flashes (photographers actively documented our visit from start to finish), it was a little hard to drop in. Still, I appreciated that the school actively carves out space for students to relax and regulate—the social and familial pressures that many students experience to perform at high academic levels have come up often throughout the first days of our visit.

A campus tour brought us to the reading room, created after COVID to provide students with a quiet, supportive place to study. Many students don’t have that kind of space at home, physically or emotionally. Another space that stood out was the student-designed Stress Buster Room. The room includes a friendship bench, a "confession corner," and areas for music and meditation, for reading, and for creative activities. A school counselor is also available here—a meaningful offering in a place where we have been told that mental health care is still often stigmatized. 

I was fortunate enough to be toured around, in part, by a grade 12 student named Sarika. She’d helped lead the morning assembly and is now in her final year, studying psychology (though with her leadership skills, I wouldn't be surprised to see her as the Prime Minister in the future!). During our walk, several students shared their career goals and their hopes to visit the U.S. One told me she wanted to be a psychologist because of the impact her school counselor had made. Others giggled when I shared my name and told me it was “cute.” The campus was full of these moments of warmth, curiosity, and pride in their learning.

In one of the classrooms, we observed a civics lesson in progress. Instead of a chalkboard (as we saw yesterday at the government-sponsored school), the teacher used a touchscreen to walk students through a PowerPoint on federalism. Students raised their hands and stood to speak, or answered in unison. Two of my fellow Fulbrighters, Anne and Leigh Ann, were invited to teach short lessons. Anne led a session on U.S. geography; Leigh Ann, on federalism. Her lesson involved splitting the room into national, state, and local governments to brainstorm a single law that would offer solutions to unemployment. At first, students didn’t quite know what to do and required some extra encouragement from Leigh Ann and their teacher to turn around and talk to each other. Later, their teacher shared they rarely try this kind of group work—it’s hard to manage with such large class sizes.

Before we left, we met briefly with the Director of Education for Delhi’s 3,500+ government schools. Apparently, she’s something of a rockstar here, and it was an honor that she made time for us. We were also able to learn more about the administrative structure of government schools in New Delhi and key initiatives at SV.

During a Q&A with teachers, one of my fellow Fulbrighters remarked that the girls in the school seemed particularly confident - more than the boys (much to the delight of the female students who had entered the room at this point and were now sitting along the wall). The teachers lit up and replied that that was a big compliment. “We’ve been working hard on girls’ empowerment. Even just ten years ago, I don’t think you would have seen that," one reflected. "And the girls aren’t taking these opportunities for granted.”

Overall, a lifetime of memories was packed into just four hours. From student-led assemblies and artwork to student-designed stress relief spaces, it's clear this school's educators and leadership put real thought into empowering students and supporting their well-being. Beyond the programs themselves, the energy of the campus, the students, and their teachers has left a lasting impression on all of us. 

From there, it was back to the hotel to pack for Agra—home of the Taj Mahal. The afternoon greeted us with classic Delhi traffic, where the rules are… loose. Lanes appear optional, vehicle horns are in constant conversation, pedestrians and bikes weave through, and somehow, it all works.