Groton Global Education Opportunities return to India and Indonesia for the first time in three years

Groton School students traveled to India and Indonesia over March break for the first Global Education Opportunities (GEOs) in three years.

A key part of the Groton mission is to help its students become true citizens of the world. Each GEO is built around experiential scholarship, immersing the students in local cultures and traditions as they learn about new countries from the people who know them best.

Following a 37-hour journey, the Indonesia GEO group arrived in Bali. Once rested, they got to know the city through local food and a scavenger hunt, and an encounter with a friendly but avocado-stealing monkey. 

Students learned how dance, chanting, and even mud wrestling are used by the islands’ different cultures as part of sacred ritual. To study sustainability, they built bamboo rafts and raced them down a river, then went into the rice fields to do some harvesting and composting, and to see how mangroves are planted. 

After a mid-trip climb up the volcano at Mount Batur, students entered into an artist immersion at the home of mask guru Anom Nonick and his wife Dayu.

In India, students were encouraged to consider their time there as a “walking meditation,” where they thought less about the destination and more about taking in everything possible along their journey.

In Old Delhi, they visited such important spiritual centers as the Jain Temple, Sikh Temple, and Red Fort Mosque. Students then hit the road again for a trip to Welham Girls’ School and the Doon School, local boarding schools that would serve as their bases of operation and learning. The Hindu holiday of Holi—celebrated as the Festival of Colors, Love, and Spring—brought music, dancing, laughter, joy, a conga line, and plenty of color. 

Other highlights included time spent with the NGO Aasraa Trust, which works to empower underserved children through education, health care and nutrition, and vocational training, and a visit to Navdanya biodiversity farm. There, students met with the farm’s founder, renowned environmentalist Vandana Shiva, whose work runs from quantum theory to seed sovereignty to ecofeminism.

Students concluded their stay with visits to Rajaji National Park—renowned home to local tigers and elephants, the Taj Mahal, and New Delhi.

 

Each cohort kept online journals during their trip, providing first-hand accounts of their experiences in India and Indonesia. An Instagram account, @grotongeos, also shared photographs and videos.

 

Groton’s GEOs are accessible to all students, and generous financial aid is provided.