Extraordinary Skill

by TLC Nielsen 

January 31, 2016 Extraordinary Ordinary Blog

www.lookandbe.blogspot.com

I met a wonderful tech person awhile back, Mrunal Gokhale. Her natural skill with technology led her to teach children how to program Bee robots at schools and libraries. She also works with students on circuitry and Lego robotics. She’s been in the United States for about 15 years and her journey is fascinating.

Welcome Mrunal!

Q) When and where did you get your start with tinkering?

A) I guess from the early years of my school life. I was lucky that the school I went to was very much focused on Science and hands-on experiments, and also the credit goes to my supportive and encouraging parents. As a child, I remember opening up a broken wall clock and an old radio with my mother just to see how it looks from inside! Somehow while growing up, I always loved to open up things to see how they look from inside.

Q) So much has changed since I was a child and you’re a bit younger. How much technology did you have available to you as a child?

A) There was very little high tech, cool technology available to me while I was growing up, mainly because it was way too expensive.  I did read a lot. Books have always been integral part of my life.

Q) How did technology influence your education?

A) Since the middle school years the subjects of physics, chemistry and biology labs were my introduction to the technology. In these labs I learned to use different tools to conduct experiments and understand the subject. Then the high school years introduced me to the world of computers. In those days in India, computer programming was a new sensation.  

Q) Your journey to Illinois has always intrigued me. How did you end up here of all places?

A) Destiny is the reason I landed up here I guess. I have been here for the past 15 years yet I never ever dreamed of leaving India for such an extended period of time! A job with Motorola is the reason I came here in the first place.

Q) Did you and your family ever consider another country or state?

A) We all love to travel and explore different cultures and lifestyles so travel plans have always been made, but we never considered staying in those places forever. I think I would love to go back to India after we retire and live in the part of the country where I grew up.

Q) Is your spouse as technologically proficient as you?

A) Oh yes, he is lot more proficient compared to me. His profession keeps him up to date with the newest technology. He belongs to a family of engineers, everyone in the past three generations of his family have been engineers.

Q) How did the two of you meet?

A) Wow, this question is taking me down memory lane. I graduated with a degree in computer science and joined an IT firm in India. On one beautiful, sunny day, we happened to meet at a common friend’s house for the first time and then kept meeting frequently.  We both were working in the field of computer programming. As we became good friends, I felt that not only our profession but our interests, family background and values were so much similar. Soon I realized this feeling was mutual. After couple of years, we both thought that we were ready to hold hands and spend the rest of our lives together!

Q) Looking ahead, what do you predict for your children’s tech lives when they reach your age?

A) Our generation is so much into smartphones and other gadgets nowadays that the newborn gets to know his or her parents and technology at the same time. We parents are literally inseparable from our smartphones.

I predict that when my children reach my age, they will prefer to communicate with and through technology rather than making eye contact or having face-to-face interactions. The next generation’s learning experience will be very much technology driven from the early toddler years. Even today, the schools are taking “hybrid” approaches where more than half of the learning is done online and the rest using paper and pencil, which is so different from education even six years ago. I am very sure the Internet will be an integral part of life for that generation. Life will sure be different.

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Thanks for visiting the Extraordinary Ordinary blog here at lookandbe.blogspot.com, where ordinary folks with extraordinary stories are highlighted. If you or someone you know has a story they’d like to share, please contact TLC at soulfixer (at) yahoo (dot) com and put” lookandbe” in the subject line.

March 31/April 1st Extra Ordinary Blog - no joke!

As winter melts into spring this month, I’d love to share the extra-ordinary adventures of a fellow library worker. Her photos from the mission trip she took to Haiti inspire me to keep writing my novel based in the sea. Her creativity in working with local teens motivates me in my own endeavors with the wee ones of the library.

Welcome, Lauren Hilty!

Q) You seem to love working with teenagers, what with being an advisor for your youth group and holding a full-time job as teen librarian. It’s a tricky age, 13-19. What made you want to work with that age group?
A)  I was very active in my church's youth group when I was in high school.  The best parts of it for me were the close relationships I had with my fellow peers, and also with our adult advisors.  I remember thinking it was so cool that grown-ups who were not related to me and not from school wanted to spend time with us, with me.  The care and love I felt was incalculable, and it was my first taste at what it was to feel a part of something bigger than myself, a part of a community of like-minded individuals and I wanted to give back by becoming an advisor myself.
       The tricky part of this age group, is you feel both alive with discovery and utterly alone.  I remember how confusing of a time it was and I also remember how significant it was to have a non-parent, non-teacher adult to turn to during the low points.  My role as an advisor and a librarian puts me in a unique position to help.  Also, it allows me to be as goofy as I want and to wear blue nail polish to work.

Q) What was your groups’ purpose on this mission trip?
A)  The trip was a scouting trip.  Our church has partnered with an experimental school in Cité Soleil, one of the country's most dangerous and impoverished slums.  The Cité Soleil Community School is the only free school in the city.  Two hundred lucky children are given a safe haven a couple hours a day and nourishment for their hungry stomachs and minds.  This school will give them the knowledge and skills they will need to not only survive but also thrive.

Q) What was it like being a youth leader on a mission trip to storm ravaged Haiti?
A)  For the first time in years, I was actually the youngest person on this particular mission trip.  Because it was only a scouting trip, I was one of six individuals selected to go and help foster relationships with other volunteer organizations, the staff of the school, and more importantly: the kids.  While we did not bring any youth with us, they were constantly on my mind.

Q) What was the highest and lowest point you experienced on this trip?
A)  The highest and lowest point of my trip were both one in the same.  Escorted by Julie, a fellow American volunteer, and three very large Haitian security guards, we set off on our tour of the streets of Cité Soleil.  We were led past homes made of cinder blocks and tin sheets patched up with old scraps of wood or tarps.  We were led down alleyways, meeting an assortment of people including the local leather smith making decorative sheaths for giant machetes.  We were led further and further down the twists and turns of the streets, in-between houses and the passageways seemed to be getting narrower and narrower.  Slowly I grew more and more concerned for my safety and as I was about to start hyperventilating a little boy, no older than three, wearing only a pair of ratted Winnie the Pooh overalls, suddenly came running around the corner right up to me and hugged me around the waist.  He looked up at me with these huge beautiful, brown eyes, smiled and simply took my hand.
      

     That opened up the floodgates.  The floodgates to not only my heart but also to the floodgates holding back a sea of tiny little children barely able to walk, barely clothed, barely inhibited.  The further we walked down those alleys the narrower they got-but this time due to the swarming kids coming to hold our hands and walk with us.  I soon found myself with at least three little hands holding each of my own and quickly realized I was no longer overcome with fear.  Instead I felt overcome with hope and serenity.  And the love I felt was instant.  I wished desperately that I could take all of them home, that I could care for them and clean them and give them safe places to sleep.  But I realized that I could not give them a different life no matter how hard I wished it.  It was then that I understood the true importance of the school, of an education.

Q) Would you ever go back? Why or why not?
A)  Going on this trip and working with those kids had been the single most eye-opening, heart-breaking, incredible trips I’ve ever been on.  All the wonderful children at the school welcomed us with open arms.  There seemed to be no looks of confusion or hostility-which we often met elsewhere.  There was only excitement and curiosity.  They simply wanted to connect with us and were so unafraid and sweet that any inhibition I had quickly melted away -- melted with a warmth that did not come from the sweltering temperatures but from their acceptance and desire to learn.  Would I go back?  In a heartbeat.

Q) How did this trip influence your decision to become a teen librarian?
A)  It was empowering and motivating to see the desire to learn in those children’s eyes.  Before my trip, I had been toying with the idea of getting an MLIS degree.  There’s nothing in the world quite like going to a third world country and realizing exactly what you want.  I wanted to help.  I wanted to make a difference.  I wanted to learn about the accessibility of information and the distribution of resources.
     Despite spending my undergraduate career studying to be a photographer, I felt studying library science was the next step in my search for growth.  I realized that what I loved most about photography was the documentation and preservation of a moment in time.  And that’s exactly what books are -- just with words.  And although I enjoyed the study and practice of photography, working in the art world just wasn’t for me.  And now, I’m working in an environment I am passionate about and get to learn something new every single day.

Q) As a librarian, there are way too many stereotypes about library workers. What are some of the stereotypes you try to bust with the students?
A)  First and foremost, I want the kids to know that I don't know everything.  No one does.  I want them to know that it's okay to not have all the answers all the time but instead to strive to gather as much information as possible in order to make an informed decision.  And also that all I do is read when I go home at night.  While I do make some time for reading, I'm a big fan of binge watching TV shows on Netflix and watching horror movies.

Q) Since you’ve become a full-time teen librarian, you have revolutionized that department, offering so many possibilities to teens: volunTeens, Anime Club, Books 2 Box Office, Teen Book Chat, Video Game Hangout, Poetry Slam, Teen Advisory Group, drop-in activities (the list goes on.) How do you come up with all these ideas?
A)  I get some ideas from fellow YA librarians and (guiltily) some from Pinterest but most of my program ideas come directly from the kids themselves.

Q) Thanks for taking time out of your really busy schedule to share your extraordinary life with us!  One last question - what is one thing about you that no one would suspect, whether it be ordinary or extra?
A)  I have four tattoos.

Thanks, Lauren, for sharing your photos and yourself with us! This wonderful Extra Ordinary blog was posted on April 1^st, 2015 from the USA. If you know someone who would like to share his/her Extraordinary Ordinariness, please email me at soulfixer13 at yahoo dot com (RE: EO blog) or leave a comment. www.lookandbe.blogspot.com is a once-a-month blog highlighting the extraordinary adventures of ordinary folks like you and me.