Reflection: Working With Live-in-Labs

During my time in India last year, I got the chance to talk with students my age who were exploring sustainable solutions towards problems faced by villages in India. Live-in-Labs members have touched the lives of countless residents during the past several years. So I was excited to find out that my peers and I were invited to help with their program’s marketing efforts involving their service-learning program. This program is designed to help students address challenges and come up with innovative solutions that test problem-solving abilities through fieldwork and projects. Live-in-Labs helps students learn first-hand how to give back to the communities while living in the communities themselves. I was very impressed after hearing about all of the projects Live-in-Labs has successfully accomplished, along with their strong efforts to develop a program focused around exposing international youth to issues of rural communities. Working with them showed me how much Live-in-Labs truly cares about the villages in India and how much time students from across the globe devote to coming up with creative and innovative solutions that help teach these communities how to live better lives. I really enjoyed meeting and interacting with the engineering students and getting the chance to learn about all of their projects and how they are formed/implemented. 

My favorite part of the day was hearing about the various marketing ideas everyone came up with. I gained a lot of valuable information from not just my peers, but the engineering students as well. Before going into the meeting, I imagined that there would be no hierarchy, which there surely was not. Everyone’s thoughts and suggestions were just as important as everyone else’s, which made me throw out more ideas! This is important when going through the brainstorming process because sometimes people (especially interns) are afraid to speak their minds. I also liked how the floor was always open to questions. Sharing their lessons from specific projects helped everyone expand their knowledge and learn how to effectively implement new techniques. We left better marketers! We were organized and extremely focused on our goals. My class was given a valuable opportunity to participate in their marketing efforts and be a part of the Live-in-Labs program. I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the brainstorming process of marketing and I believe I gained a lot of valuable skills that can help me in the future.

Below is a pamphlet idea I created for my presentation to the Amrita students: