Menlo News September 17, 2019

Far-Reaching Research: 2019 HAND Fellows Present Projects

Each year, the HAND Foundation generously provides support for several student-fellows to undertake an in-depth, experiential travel-study project over the summer.
2019 HAND Fellows present their projects as Upper School assembly.

Suwen Ma, 2019 HAND Fellowship With her HAND fellowship, Sulwen Ma ’20 traveled to Sichuan, China, to study how the country’s rapid economic development has led to a generation of “left-behind children.” The parents of these kids have moved from rural villages to urban centers in search of economic opportunity, often leaving their offspring with relatives, friends, or to fend for themselves. Sulwen lived with local host families, spent time teaching and tutoring, and worked with a nonprofit organization the provides education and support for these children. “I’d like to thank the HAND Foundation and Menlo for giving me this amazing opportunity to study what I’m most interested in,” she says. “The families I met through homestays in Naxi and Zhongjiang broadened my understanding of the devastating effects of rapid globalization and allowed me to experience life in rural China.”

Sareena Sandu, 2019 HAND Fellowship Sareena Sandhu ’21 used a HAND grant to film a documentary investigating the social and cultural impacts of the migration of Punjabi Sikh farmers from India to the Parmesan cheese-making region of Italy to farm and produce Parmesan cheese. Specifically, she sought to gain a sense of the labor relations and social dynamics between Punjabi workers and Italian employers, to learn about the impacts of Indian integration into Italian culture and society, and to shed light on the lives and stories of these people. “Going into this trip, I did my research and planned out all that I could. But nothing prepared me for the overwhelming kindness and welcoming gestures from both the Italian and Indian communities,” Sareena says. “This project taught me not only about the difficulties and adventures of starting a life in a foreign country, but also about the importance and value of traveling, face-to-face conversations, and real experience in order to truly learn about the world.”